WOOL 


FRANK  ORMEROD 


"\ 


STAPLE   TRADES  AND   INDUSTRIES 
EDITED  BY  GORDON  D.  KNOX 


WOOL 

FRANK  ORMEROD 


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STAPLE  TRADES  AND  INDUSTRIES 
Edited  by  GORDON   D.   KNOX 


WOOL 


BY 


FRANK  ORMEROD 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
1919 


o 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

TO-DAY  the  world  is  faced  with  an  expenditure 
so  vast  that  only  a  rapid  development  of  trade 
can  restore  prosperity.  Various  steps  have  been 
taken  by  the  Governments  to  spread  a  greater 
knowledge  of  trading  conditions  all  over  the 
world.  Government  activity,  however,  has  never 
succeeded  in  creating  a  nation's  trade  and  must 
inevitably  be  dependent  on  the  initiative  of  the 
trading  community. 

Every  year,  partly  because  of  and  partly  in 
spite  of  the  increasing  specialisation  of  trade,  the 
need  becomes  greater  for  the  closest  possible 
study  of  the  national  trade.  And  a  study  of  the 
national  trade  involves  a  close  knowledge  of  trade 
conditions  throughout  the  whole  world.  Experi- 
ence in  every  department  of  life  has  shown  the 
weakness  of  purely  ad  hoc  knowledge.  Much  has 
to  be  learnt  by  all  classes  of  the  community  that 
has  no  direct  bearing  on  their  immediate  con- 
cerns, and  the  penalty  for  not  acquiring  such 
knowledge  is  a  narrowing  of  the  outlook  and  a 
lessening  of  efficiency.  In  commercial  life  wide 
knowledge  is  equally  essential  to  individual  and 


vi  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

national  prosperity.  The  mistakes  of  the  past — 
the  whole  history  of  the  dye  trade  is  only  one  of 
many  glaring  examples — are  mistakes  for  which 
commercial  men  must  share  the  blame  with  the 
politicians.  New  problems  which  can  only  be 
solved  by  those  possessing  that  power  of  foresight 
which  depends  on  wide,  well-digested  knowledge 
are  continually  arising  and  the  old  problems  are 
perpetually  requiring  fresh  solution. 

Knowledge  of  this  essential  sort  is  lacking 
largely  because  it  is  not  available  in  a  form  that 
can  easily  be  appreciated  by  those  without  expert 
training  in  the  individual  trades.  Yet  the  knowl- 
edge is  vital  to  all  those  who  have  the  interests  of 
the  nation  at  heart.  Events  have  shown  that  the 
public  dare  not  remain  in  ignorance.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  individual  citizen  to  realise  the  factors 
on  which  the  prosperity  of  the  country  depends, 
to  have  exact  knowledge  as  to  the  sources  both  of 
the  raw  materials  and  of  the  manufactured  prod- 
ucts that  enter  so  largely  into  the  life  of  the  na- 
tion. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  present  series  to  supply 
this  want.  Each  volume  in  it  is  the  work  of  an 
expert,  and  in  every  case  care  is  being  taken  to 
give  an  exact  but  general  view  of  the  staple  trades 
as  a  whole.  It  is  hoped  that  the  information  so 
presented  will  be  of  value  to  those  who  may  be 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  vii 

brought  actively  into  contact  with  the  industries 
concerned,  that  they  will  enable  the  nation  as  a 
whole  to  form  a  sound  judgment  on  questions  of 
commercial  importance. 

GORDON  D.  KNOX. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

BOOKS  on  wool  and  the  wool  industry  are  many 
and  of  great  value,  but  generally  they  are  of 
sectional  interest  only,  and  incapable  of  being 
appreciated  by  any  but  those  possessed  of  special 
technical  knowledge.  The  present  volume  is  in- 
tended to  make  a  wider  appeal,  and,  while  main- 
taining strict  scientific  accuracy,  to  present  a 
comprehensive  survey  of  the  subject  in  a  more  or 
less  popular  form.  In  other  words,  the  object  of 
the  writer  has  been  to  bring  together  material 
upon  which  the  general  reader  may  form  a  sound 
opinion  without  being  worried  by  detail  and 
perplexed  by  technicality. 

It  is  hoped,  also,  that  the  student  will  find 
much  to  interest,  especially  in  those  chapters 
which  deal  with  the  introduction  of  the  wool 
trade  into  Great  Britain — a  phase  of  the  subject 
which  has  hitherto  hardly  had  the  attention  it 
deserved. 

The  writer  has  to  tender  thanks  to  the  various 
authorities  quoted  in  the  following  pages,  and 
especially  to  the  officials  of  the  Commonwealth 

ix 


x  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

and  States  of  Australia,  to  whom  he  is  indebted 
for  much  statistical  and  other  information,  and 
also  for  some  of  the  most  attractive  pictures  in 
the  book. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  GENESIS  OF  WOOL  ....         1 
II.  THE  COMING  OF  THE  WEAVERS         .         .       10 

III.  How  ENGLAND  TOOK  THE  LEAD        .         .21 

IV.  SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE  ...       34 
V.  THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  ...       50 

VI.  AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE     .         .       70 

VII.  THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL      ...       85 

VIII.  SHEARING  AND  SORTING  ....       99 

IX.  PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE    .         .113 

X.  FINISHING  PROCESSES     ....     137 

XI.  THE  EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION     147 

XII.  THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       .         .162 

XIII.  THE  FUTURE  OF  WOOL   .         .         .         .183 

XIV.  SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES  .         .     196 
INDEX  . 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

"  THE  LANDS  WHERE  MILLIONS  OF  SHAGGY-COATED 
SHEEP  ARE  BEING  RAISED*'    .  Frontispiece 

A  GROUP  OF  LINCOLN  SHEEP  ....  36 
THE  LEICESTER  RAM  .....  60 
THE  ROMNEY  MARSH  SHEEP  ....  60 

STUD  MERINO  RAMS 76 

"To  SEE  THE  MERINO  is  TO  BE  CONVINCED  OF  ITS 

MARVELLOUS  WOOL-PRODUCING  QUALITIES "       .         76 

A    WOOL    WAREHOUSE    IN    ADELAIDE,    SOUTH 

AUSTRALIA 88 

SHEARING  BY  MACHINERY  ON  AN  AUSTRALIAN 

STATION 104 

CARDING 114 

ENGLISH  COMBING  MACHINE  .  .  .  .118 
SPINNING  FRAMES  AT  WORK  .  .  .  .118 
WEAVING  ON  THE  OLD  HAND-LOOM  .  .  .126 
AN  UP-TO-DATE  WEAVING  SHED  .  .  .  134 
WOOL-SORTING  AND  CLASSING  IN  NEW  SOUTH 

WALES 180 

"THE  GREAT  SOURCE  OF  AUSTRALIA'S  WEALTH  is 

HER  PASTORAL  INDUSTRY"  ....  204 
rii 


WOOL 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  GENESIS  OF  WOOL 

THE  industry  of  Wool  is  undoubtedly  the  oldest 
known  to  the  round  world.  By  this,  of  course, 
is  meant  the  growth  rather  than  the  manufacture 
of  the  fibre,  for  wool  remained  purely  domestic  in 
use  for  ages  before  it  figured  as  a  marketable 
commodity. 

Many  people — on  the  principle  that  the  hen 
must  of  necessity  have  existed  before  the  egg — 
have  contended  that  priority  should  be  given  to 
Agriculture,  but  probability  and  recorded  history 
are  altogether  against  such  a  theory.  Prehistoric 
man,  we  are  led  to  believe,  lived  solely  by  his 
prowess  as  a  hunter,  but  at  the  dawn  of  civilisation 
we  find  our  less  hairy  ancestor  laying  aside  his  club 
and  spear  and  taking  up  the  shepherd's  crook — 
indeed,  exchanging  his  cave  dwelling  for  a  nomadic 
life  in  which  sheep  invariably  figured  and  provided 
him  with  a  means  of  sustenance.  The  more  care- 
ful arts  of  husbandry  belong  to  a  later  date. 

1 


2      ::•:.••:  ••.•'•::..:  /-WOOL 

In  "the  days  that  were  earlier"  man's  immedi- 
ate wants  were  without  doubt  supplied  almost 
entirely  by  members  of  that  mild  and  faithful 
ovis  family  which  had,  no  one  knows  how  or 
when,  appeared  on  the  scene  to  provide  him  with 
food  for  his  maintenance  and  a  warm  covering 
against  the  stormy  elements,  and  that  without 
imposing  upon  him  the  hardship  of  tilling  the 
soil,  or  calling  for  any  special  care  whatever.  All 
that  the  keeping  of  sheep  involved  in  that  far-off 
day  was  the  exercise  of  a  guiding  and  protecting 
hand — a  shield  from  prowling  beasts  of  prey,  and 
liberty  to  roam  where  green  pastures  invited  and 
limpid  streams  abounded. 

It  may  be  safely  assumed,  then,  that  men  were 
pastoralists  long  before  they  were  agriculturists, 
and,  therefore,  that  the  gentle  shepherd  of  song 
and  story  embodies  for  us  the  first  idea  of  organ- 
ised industry  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The 
main  business  of  our  early  ancestors  was  to  wander 
to  and  fro  on  the  face  of  the  earth  feeding  and 
watering  their  sheep,  and  giving  no  thought 
whatever  to  the  tilling  of  the  soil.  Just  at  what 
period  man  began  to  live  a  more  settled  life  it  is 
difficult  to  tell — when  he  began  to  sow  his  corn 
and  call  for  a  raiment  more  comfortable  and  pre- 
sentable than  his  rude  sheepskin;  but  that  the 
date  is  very  remote  can  be  gathered  from  the  fact 


THE  GENESIS  OF  WOOL  3 

that  we  must  go  back  to  a  time  long  anterior  to 
the  civilisations  not  only  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
but  of  Carthage  and  Babylon  and  even  ancient 
Egypt  itself. 

The  Bible,  as  well  as  pagan  literature,  is  full  of 
allusions  to  sheep  and  shepherds,  and  there  is  also 
abundant  evidence,  both  in  Holy  Writ  and  in  the 
classics,  that  the  ancients  were  familiar  with  the 
methods  of  manufacturing  and  dyeing  wool. 
Probably  wool  was  "felted"  long  before  it  was 
spun  and  woven,  for  we  have  Pliny  pointing  out 
that  garments  can  be  made  without  the  aid  of 
spinning  and  weaving,  and  also  stating  his  belief 
that  if  vinegar  be  used  in  the  felting,  the  garment 
can  be  made  proof  against  both  fire  and  sword! 
To  show,  however,  that  weaving  is  a  very  ancient 
branch  of  industry,  we  need  only  quote  the  words 
of  Job,  who  lamented  that  his  days  were  "swifter 
than  a  weaver's  shuttle,"  while  the  frequent  men- 
tion of  people  being  clothed  in  purple  and  other 
colours  proves  that  dyes  were  well  known  at  a 
very  early  period  of  the  world's  history.  Herodo- 
tus, too,  makes  it  quite  clear  that  woollen  was 
one  of  the  earliest  of  our  commodities.  Speaking 
of  the  proficiency  of  the  Egyptians  in  making  fine 
linen — and  with  all  our  experience  and  mechan- 
ical aids  we  have  not  appreciably  out-distanced 
in  quality  the  linen  product  of  that  far-off  day — 


4  WOOL 

he  states  that  it  was  accounted  profane  to  enter 
any  temple  wearing  a  woollen  garment,  or  to  be 
buried  in  anything  made  of  wool.  It  is  a  curious 
fact,  worth  mentioning,  that  history  quite  re- 
versed this  dictum  many  centuries  later,  when 
Charles  II.  commanded  that  all  and  sundry  should 
be  buried  in  woollen.  In  the  case  of  the  Stuart 
there  was  a  hard  commercial  reason  behind  the 
order,  and  maybe  if  we  could  get  down  to  the 
controlling  influences  of  those  Egyptian  times  we 
should  find  a  somewhat  similar  reason.  It  might 
not  have  been  so  much  a  matter  of  profanation 
that  was  involved,  as  a  special  "pull"  which  the 
linen  manufacturer  of  that  day  had  acquired  over 
the  maker  of  woollens. 

It  would  be  difficult,  perhaps,  to  determine 
exactly  which  is  entitled  to  historic  precedence — 
silk,  or  flax,  or  wool;  but  it  can  be  said  with  some- 
thing like  certainty  that  wool  was  the  first  of  the 
textiles  to  be  used  to  any  extent  for  the  clothing 
of  Europeans.  We  have  ample  evidence  of  its 
popularity  with  the  Romans,  and  we  have  good 
reason  for  believing  that  it  was  the  Roman  who 
introduced  the  methods  of  manufacturing  woollen 
into  England.  Caesar  records  that  at  the  time  of 
his  invasion  the  Britons  of  the  interior  were  for 
the  most  part  clad  in  skins,  but  he  adds  that  the 
inhabitants  of  what  is  now  Kent  were  much  more 


THE  GENESIS  OF  WOOL  5 

civilised,  and  did  not  greatly  differ  from  the 
Gauls.  Many  wore  drapery  similar  to  that  of  the 
Gallic  and  the  Belgic  tribes,  he  says,  and  they 
presumably  imported  the  cloth  from  the  Conti- 
nent. Whether  the  clothing  was  or  was  not  made 
in  Britain  we  are  not  definitely  informed,  but  we 
have  it  on  record  that  the  Romans  brought  the 
manufacture  of  wool  to  England  along  with  other 
arts  of  peace.  The  sheep  is  stated  to  have  been 
a  domestic  animal  in  Britain  long  before  the 
period  of  the  Roman  occupation,  but  it  was  the 
Romans  who  first  taught  the  natives  what  possi- 
bilities there  were  in  the  fleeces.  Camden  states 
that  the  Romans  established  a  large  factory  at 
Winchester  for  the  production  of  clothing  for 
their  troops,  but  the  industry  thus  started  was 
practically  wiped  out  again  when  the  barbarous 
Saxons  overran  the  country  after  the  departure 
of  the  Roman  hosts.  It  was  not  until  William  of 
Normandy  reached  our  shores  that  the  wool 
industry  came  to  life  again,  and  it  was  a  good  deal 
later  that  the  impetus  was  given  to  it  that  was 
eventually  to  make  Britain  the  foremost  manu- 
facturing country  in  the  world. 

The  part  the  Golden  Fleece  has  played  in 
English  history  is  a  royal  one,  but  it  is  apt  to  be 
forgotten  in  a  day  when  few  people  stop  to  think 
why  the  Lord  Chancellor  takes  his  seat  upon  a 


6  WOOL 

woolsack,  and  when  the  man  in  the  street  would 
have  difficulty  not  only  in  naming  off-hand  the 
benefactors  who  first  introduced  the  comfort  of 
woollen  into  Britain,  but  even  in  specifying  that 
"Royal  Wool  Merchant"  who  provided  us  with 
the  technical  knowledge  necessary  to  become  a 
great  manufacturing  nation.  An  obscure  para- 
graph in  a  morning  newspaper  records  now  and 
then  that  so  many  thousands  of  bales  of  wool 
have  been  bought  and  sold  somewhere  in  the 
great  city  of  London,  but  seldom  is  a  thought 
spared  on  what  lies  before  and  behind  the  bald 
announcement.  It  is  a  paragraph  from  which  all 
the  "picture"  is  excluded,  and  the  reader  is  not 
encouraged  to  think  either  of  the  lands  where 
millions  of  shaggy-coated  sheep  are  being  reared 
under  the  eye  of  careful  flockmasters,  or  of  the 
astonishing  ingenuity  that  is  daily  being  exercised 
in  the  great  factory  areas  of  the  North  to  furnish 
a  covering  sufficient  for  health  and  comfort,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  provide  that  fine  raiment 
which  inexorable  Fashion  has  decreed  is  almost 
as  indispensable  for  personal  adornment. 

Before  the  thirteenth  century  the  historical 
records  of  this  country  were  not  a  great  deal  con- 
cerned with  either  sheep  or  wool.  True,  we  are 
sometimes  told  what  was  the  ruling  price  of  the 
sheep — at  one  time  it  is  said  to  be  a  shilling,  and 


THE  GENESIS  OF  WOOL  7 

at  another  to  have  fallen  as  low  as  a  penny — and 
we  occasionally  hear  of  "fines  for  leave  to  export 
wool,"  but  it  is  not  until  the  time  of  the  Second 
and  Third  Henrys  that  reports  on  wool  and  woollen 
become  common. 

We  are  told  with  certainty  that  Henry  III. 
visited  Witney  in  1221  and  "expended  £20  on  his 
wardrobe,"  and  that  in  1300  woollen  guilds  were 
established  in  London,  Norwich,  and  other  places. 
The  first  of  these  guilds  was  for  weavers  and 
burrellers,  the  second  was  for  dyers  and  fullers, 
and  the  third  for  tailors.  This  seems  to  be  proof 
positive  that  the  trade  was  well  established  in 
England  seven  or  eight  centuries  ago,  especially, 
too,  as  we  find  that  a  weaver  of  Bristol,  by  name 
Thomas  Blanket,  invented  so  early  as  1320  the 
raised  woollen  material  which  still  bears  his  name. 
A  little  later  (1341)  Norfolk,  one  of  the  special 
places  where  the  weavers  had  settled,  was  stated 
on  the  strength  of  its  assessment  to  be  "the 
wealthiest  county  in  England  next  to  Middlesex," 
and  nine  years  after  this  it  was  computed  that 
England  had  an  annual  export  of  eleven  and  a 
half  million  pounds  of  wool,  the  value  of  which 
was  £180,000. 

As  evidence  that  the  wool  industry  very  early 
settled  in  the  North,  we  have  it  on  record  that  a 
fulling  mill  was  founded  in  Bradford,  and  another 


8  WOOL 

at  Colne  in  Lancashire,  during  the  reign  of  Ed- 
ward II.,  implying  clearly  (as  Dr.  Whitaker 
points  out  in  his  "History  of  Whalley  ")  that  cloth 
was  manufactured  there  early  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  plainly  contradicting  the  generally 
received  opinion  that  English  wool  was  universally 
manufactured  in  Flanders  till  the  Act  of  the  tenth 
of  Edward  the  Third  inviting  over  Flemish  manu- 
facturers and  granting  them  considerable  privi- 
leges. There  are  said  to  have  been  fifty  families 
invited  over,  and  these,  in  return  for  substantial 
advantages,  were  to  teach  the  natives  of  this 
country  the  arts  of  spinning,  weaving,  and  dyeing 
wool.  One  of  these  manufacturers  from  Flanders 
was  a  distinguished  person  named  John  Kempe, 
who  brought  unproved  methods  of  making  woollen 
cloth  and  settled  in  Westmoreland,  at  Kendal. 
He  is  said  to  have  founded  the  popular  "Kendal 
green"  spoken  of  by  Shakespeare. 

Fuller,  the  historian,  alluding  to  the  time  of 
this  early  settlement  of  Flemings,  makes  the 
following  quaint  comment:  "The  king  and  state 
began  now  to  grow  sensible  of  the  great  gain  the 
Netherlands  got  by  our  English  wooll.  In  memory 
whereof,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  not  long  after, 
instituted  the  order  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  wherein, 
indeed,  the  fleece  was  ours,  the  golden  their Js, 
so  vast  their  emolument  from  the  trade  of  cloth- 


THE  GENESIS  OF  WOOL  9 

ing.  Our  king  therefore  resolved,  if  possible,  to 
revive  the  trade  of  his  own  country,  who  as  yet 
were  ignorant  of  that  art,  as  knowing  no  more 
what  to  do  with  their  wooll  than  the  sheep  that 
weare  it,  as  to  any  artificial  and  curious  drapery, 
their  best  cloth  then  being  no  better  than  freeze, 
such  their  coarseness  for  want  of  skill  in  their 
making.  But  soon  after  followed  a  great  altera- 
tion." 

It  was,  indeed,  a  great  alteration  which  fol- 
lowed, so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  wool,  in  its  raw 
and  manufactured  states,  became  the  most  im- 
portant source  of  wealth  in  the  country,  and 
remained  so  until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, when  cotton  made  such  extraordinary 
strides  in  England.  It  was  in  those  early  days 
described  as  "the  flower  and  strength  and  revenue 
and  blood  of  England."  All  kinds  of  laws  were 
enacted  to  protect  and  stimulate  it,  some  threat- 
ening even  life  itself.  One  of  the  best  known  of 
these  legal  expedients — one  which  has  already 
been  alluded  to — was  that  of  Charles  II.,  who 
decreed  that  all  dead  bodies  should  be  buried  in 
woollen  shrouds.  This  enactment  remained  in 
being  for  over  a  hundred  years  although  it  has  to 
be  admitted  that  it  ceased  to  be  regarded  long 
before  it  was  removed  from  the  Statute  Book. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  COMING   OF  THE  WEAVERS 

THE  coining  of  the  weavers  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  chapters  in  our  industrial  history. 
How  the  first  Flemish  people  were  lured  into  the 
country  in  Edward's  days  we  cannot  quite  tell. 
There  must  have  been  some  very  special  induce- 
ment to  attract  such  home-staying  people- 
something  more,  one  would  imagine,  than  the 
baits  said  to  have  been  held  out  by  the  historian 
Fuller.  That  old  chronicler  states  that  the  emis- 
saries employed  by  the  king  ingratiated  them- 
selves with  the  journeymen  and  apprentices 
rather  than  the  masters,  and  began  to  instil  a 
spirit  of  discontent  by  pointing  out  that  they 
were  worked  rather  like  heathens  than  Christians, 
and  like  horses  rather  than  men.  Why  not  then 
leave  their  long  hours  and  heartless  masters?  why 
not  give  up  their  herrings  and  mouldy  cheese  and 
come  to  a  land  where  they  could  feed  upon  fat 
beef  and  mutton — feed  until  nothing  but  their 
fulness  should  stint  their  stomachs!  Besides, 
wasn't  England  the  country  of  the  most  beautiful 

10 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  WEAVERS         11 

women,  and  were  not  the  richest  yeomen  waiting 
to  marry  their  daughters  to  them?  The  blandish- 
ments may  or  may  not  have  had  some  effect,  but, 
judging  from  the  manner  in  which  the  people  of 
the  Low  Countries  usually  conducted  their  busi- 
ness, one  would  imagine  that  something  in  the 
way  of  good  hard  cash  would  have  to  be  forth- 
coming, as  well,  before  the  cautious  burghers 
picked  up  their  traps  and  sailed  away. 

All  this,  of  course,  refers  to  what  may  be  termed 
the  first  invasion.  The  coming  of  the  second  and 
much  larger  contingent  in  the  sixteenth  century 
was  due  to  a  totally  different  set  of  circumstances, 
and  then  the  Netherlanders  needed  no  feminine 
charms  nor  promises  of  stuffed  paunches  to  attract 
them  to  the  shores  of  Britain.  They  came  with 
alacrity  and  on  their  own  initiative,  glad  to  escape 
to  any  haven  of  refuge.  The  textile  trade  of 
Britain  received  its  greatest  impetus  while  the 
infamous  Duke  of  Alva  was,  as  Froude  puts  it, 
engaged  in  "drowning  heresy  in  its  own  blood" 
in  the  Netherlands.  Previous  to  that,  manufac- 
ture had  been  carried  on  in  a  more  or  less  desultory 
fashion;  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century 
circumstances  conspired  to  make  England  indus- 
trially great  at  the  expense  of  a  gifted  but  terribly 
unfortunate  people. 

Spain,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  half  of  the 


12  WOOL 

sixteenth  century,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the 
great  world-power,  controlling  the  destinies  of  the 
Netherlands,  of  Germany,  of  a  great  part  of 
Italy,  of  Sicily,  as  well  as  settlements  in  Africa 
and  the  New  World.  The  Netherlands  at  that 
time  were  enjoying  a  period  of  the  greatest  pros- 
perity. An  industrious  people,  with  a  special 
aptitude  for  manufacturing,  they  had  wrested 
the  commercial  supremacy  from  Venice.  Trade 
flourished  and  wealth  abounded.  The  people,  la- 
borious, diligent  and  ingenious,  lived  in  opulence 
and  comfort,  and  desired  nothing  so  much  as  to 
be  allowed  to  live  in  peace  and  develop  their  in- 
dustries. Philip  II.,  however,  had  come  to  the 
Spanish  throne,  and  was  ambitious  of  convert- 
ing the  whole  of  Europe  to  Catholicism.  One  of 
his  greatest  obstacles,  he  found,  was  that  the 
Netherlands  had  begun  to  imbibe  too  freely  the 
reformed  religious  doctrines  of  the  times,  and  he 
set  himself  with  great  zeal  and  energy  to  stamp 
out  heresy  and  crush  Protestantism  throughout 
the  provinces.  The  Netherlanders,  seeing  their 
liberties  threatened,  vehemently  protested,  but 
Philip  replied  by  instituting  an  Inquisition  which 
had  results  of  the  most  terrible  and  far-reaching 
character.  The  history  of  that  murderous  op- 
pression reads  to-day  like  a  nightmare.  The 
spirit  of  religious  frenzy  which  then  reigned  can 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  WEAVERS         13 

with  difficulty  be  comprehended  in  our  colder  and 
more  rational  age.  Before  the  tyranny  was  over- 
past it  was  difficult  to  find  a  fireside,  Protestant 
or  Catholic,  which  had  not  been  made  desolate  by 
execution,  banishment,  or  confiscation.  Alva  was 
Philip's  zealous  emissary,  and  long  before  he  had 
finished  his  appalling  task  a  multitude  of  the  most 
able  and  industrious  of  the  Dutch  and  Flemish 
people  were  wandering  penniless  in  distant  lands. 
Foreign  merchants  were  scared  from  the  great 
commercial  cities,  and  every  industrious  artisan 
who  could  find  the  means  of  escape  sought  refuge 
among  strangers,  wherever  an  asylum  could  be 
found. 

That  asylum  was  chiefly  found  in  Protestant 
England,  who  received  these  intelligent  and  un- 
fortunate wanderers  with  cordiality,  and  drank 
in  with  eagerness  the  lessons  in  mechanical  skill 
they  had  to  teach.  Already  it  was  estimated 
that  there  were  thirty  thousand  emigrant  Nether- 
landers  established  in  Sandwich,  Norwich,  and 
other  places  assigned  to  them  by  Elizabeth,  and 
the  refugees  added  thousands  more  to  England's 
population.  Later  on,  it  may  be  incidentally 
mentioned,  other  religious  persecutions  brought 
refugees  to  our  shores,  notably  after  the  Massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew  in  1572,  and  the  Revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  1685.  These  men, 


14  WOOL 

however,  were  French,  principally  silk  weavers 
and  makers  of  brocades  and  paduasoys,  and  relics 
of  the  prosperous  era  of  industry  they  inaugurated 
in  Kent,  which  did  not  die  until  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  are  yet  to  be  found  in  many 
place  and  family  names,  in  buildings,  even  in  a 
remarkably  distinct  physical  type,  especially  near 
Eye  and  Winchelsea,  and  above  all  in  the  existence 
of  the  Huguenot  church  in  the  crypt  of  Canter- 
bury Cathedral.  The  peaceful  invasions  of  the 
earlier  "Dutchmen,"  as  the  Netherlanders  were 
generally  and  indiscriminately  named  by  the  mass 
of  the  people  of  this  country,  have  left  their  own 
special  evidences  in  other  parts  of  the  country, 
both  North  and  South.  There  are  to-day,  for 
instance,  plenty  of  reminders  in  such  old-world 
Kentish  towns  as  Cranbrook,  Tenterden,  Hawk- 
hurst,  Smarden,  and  Biddenden  of  a  very  large 
and  flourishing  woollen  industry,  and  local  records 
are  full  of  evidence  that  the  Kentish  "grey-coats" 
were  not  only  popular  locally,  but  were  appreci- 
ated to  the  full  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 

In  connection  with  these  two  main  invasions  of 
Netherlanders  mention  may  be  made  of  two  im- 
portant decisions  which  vitally  affected  the  wool- 
len industry  in  this  country,  and  demonstrated, 
moreover,  how  closely  in  the  early  days  the  Brit- 
ish kept  their  eyes  fastened  on  the  main  chance. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  WEAVERS         15 

England,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  for  centuries 
a  grower  of  wool  before  she  was  a  manufacturer 
of  it;  at  least,  before  she  was  a  manufacturer  of 
anything  beyond  her  bare  domestic  needs.  In  the 
first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  England  was 
very  largely  exporting  the  product  of  her  sheep, 
and,  after  manufacture  in  the  Low  Countries,  the 
cloth  was  brought  back  again  to  be  made  up  into 
clothing.  Edward  IIL's  queen,  Philippa,  herself 
a  Netherlands  woman,  is  always  given  the  credit 
of  making  what  would  seem,  in  the  circumstances, 
to  be  a  fairly  obvious  suggestion — the  suggestion 
that  Mahomet  should  be  brought  to  the  moun- 
tain, and  not  the  mountain  taken  to  Mahomet. 
In  other  words  the  queen  asked  why  the  wool 
could  not  be  manufactured  as  well  as  grown 
in  England,  and  so  do  away  with  the  trouble, 
cost,  inconvenience,  and  often  the  very  great 
loss  attached  to  sending  cargoes  of  wool  across 
the  boisterous  North  Sea  where  dangers  in  those 
times  abounded.  The  king,  curiously  enough, 
seems  not  to  have  thought  of  such  an  accommo- 
dating plan,  but  the  moment  it  was  suggested  to 
him  he  acted  upon  it  with  alacrity.  Indeed,  so 
devoted  did  he  become  to  the  work  of  developing 
the  wool  trade  in  England  from  that  time  onward 
that  he  came  to  be  known  as  its  special  patron, 
and  to  this  day  the  woolsack  in  the  House  of 


16  WOOL 

Lords,  as  well  as  a  number  of  interesting  statutes, 
remains  as  a  monument  to  his  zeal  and  enter- 
prise. 

The  other  important  step  taken  to  advance  the 
native  industry  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
settlement  of  the  refugees  in  England  at  the  time 
Alva  was  engaged  in  his  terrible  crusade.  One 
condition  imposed  upon  the  settlers  from  the 
Continent  was  that  they  must  not  keep  their 
precious  textile  secrets  too  jealously  guarded.  It 
was  accordingly  enacted  that  each  of  these  weavers 
should  take  at  least  one  English  youth  into  ap- 
prenticeship, while  at  the  same  time  the  tariffs 
were  adjusted  so  that  England  might  obtain  a 
maximum  of  advantage.  This  system  of  appren- 
ticeship, it  need  hardly  be  said,  was  the  opening 
of  the  door  to  native  enterprise,  and  how  readily 
and  capably  the  opportunity  was  grasped  is  to 
be  read  in  the  astonishingly  rapid  growth  of  the 
British  textile  trade.  The  system  of  apprentice- 
ship remained  in  force  long  after  the  "Dutch" 
had  either  been  assimilated  in  the  land  of  their 
adoption  or  had  returned  to  their  native  shores, 
after  Alva  had  ceased  from  troubling  and  their 
sorely-tried  country  was  at  rest. 

Smiles  tells  us  many  interesting  things  about 
the  settlement  of  the  Flemish  weavers  in  this 
country.  Although  the  English  at  a  later  date 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  WEAVERS         17 

showed  some  animosity  against  the  refugees  who 
so  rapidly  waxed  fat  in  England,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  at  the  outset  they  were  very  heartily  wel- 
comed, Elizabeth  herself  enjoining  the  Mayors  of 
Deal,  Sandwich,  and  other  places  to  give  the 
foreigners  full  liberty,  as  their  coming  was  calcu- 
lated greatly  to  benefit  the  towns  by  "plantynge 
in  the  same  men  of  knowledge  in  sundry  handy- 
crafts  in  which  they  are  very  skilful."  From 
about  1561  onwards  the  fugitives  came  from 
Flanders  in  a  steady  stream,  and  by  1573,  when 
Queen  Elizabeth  visited  Sandwich,  the  Flemish 
constituted  about  one-third  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  the  town.  On  the  occasion  of  the  royal 
visit  referred  to,  it  is  recorded  that  "against  the 
school-house  upon  the  new  turfed  wall,  and  upon 
a  scaffold  made  upon  the  wall  of  the  school-house 
yard,  were  divers  children,  to  the  number  of  a 
hundred  or  six  score,  all  spinning  of  fine  bag  yarn, 
a  thing  well  liked  both  of  Her  Majesty  and  of  the 
Nobility  and  Ladies." 

Norwich  was  one  of  the  chief  settlements  of  the 
Flemings,  there  being  at  one  time  between  four 
and  five  thousand  domiciled  there.  These  ref- 
ugees brought  great  prosperity  to  the  place,  but 
when  the  foreign  artisans  had  prospered,  the 
natives  of  the  city  were  among  the  first  to  turn 
upon  their  benefactors.  The  local  guilds  passed 


18  WOOL 

stringent  regulations  against  the  weavers,  who 
were  eventually  driven  out  of  the  place.  Many 
left  Nc  ~vich  for  Leeds  and  Wakefield,  in  York- 
shire, where  they  prosecuted  the  woollen  manu- 
facture free  from  the  restrictions  of  the  trades 
unions  of  that  day;  while  others  left  England  for 
Holland,  to  carry  on  their  trades  in  the  free  towns 
of  that  country. 

The  Flemish  also  spread  themselves  through 
the  towns  and  villages  in  the  West  of  England,  as 
well  as  throughout  the  North,  and  wherever  the 
woollen  weavers  set  up  their  looms  they  carried 
on  a  prosperous  trade.  In  the  North  they  estab- 
lished themselves  at  Manchester,  Bolton,  and 
Halifax,  where  they  made  "coatings,"  or  "cot- 
tons," which  were  at  that  day  imitations  in  wool- 
len of  the  goods  known  on  the  Continent  by  those 
names,  the  importation  of  the  vegetable  cotton 
fibre  from  the  Levant  having  only  begun,  even 
in  small  quantities,  by  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

"There  is  one  fact,"  says  the  editor  of  the 
" Shuttleworth  Papers,"  "which  seems  to  show 
that  the  Flemings,  after  their  immigration,  had 
much  to  do  with  the  fulling  mill  at  Manchester; 
for  its  ordinary  name  was  the  'walken-milne* — 
walche  being  the  Flemish  name  for  fulling  mill. 
So  persistent  do  we  find  this  name,  that  a  plot  of 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  WEAVERS         19 

land  occupied  by  a  mill  on  the  banks  of  the  Irk 
still  retains  its  old  name  of  the  Walker's  Croft 
(i.  e.,  the  fuller's  field  or  ground),  and  in  th£  earlier 
Manchester  directories,  the  fullers^,  were  styled 
'walkers."'  The  name  of  Walker,  so  common  in 
Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  and  the  clothing  districts 
of  the  West  of  England,  doubtless  originated  in 
this  calling,  which  was  followed  by  so  considerable 
a  proportion  of  the  population.  It  might  also  be 
added  that  many  old  people  in  rural  districts  in 
the  North  still  allude  to  fulling  mills  as  walk 
mills,  and  constantly  speak  of  fullers'  earth  as 
"walkers'  earth"  (or  "yearth,"  as  the  last  word 
is  more  commonly  pronounced  in  the  dialect). 

Fuller,  the  historian,  specifies  the  following 
textile  manufactures  as  having  been  established 
by  the  Flemings  in  various  parts  of  the  coun- 
try: in  Norwich,  cloths,  fustians,  &c.;  Sudbury, 
baizes;  Colchester,  sayes  and  serges;  Kent,  Kent- 
ish broadcloths;  Devonshire,  kerseys;  Gloucester- 
shire and  Worcestershire,  cloths;  Wales,  Welsh 
friezes;  Westmoreland,  Kendal  cloth;  Lancashire, 
coatings  or  cottons;  Yorkshire,  Halifax  cloths; 
Somerset,  Taunton  serges;  Hants,  Berks,  and 
Sussex,  cloth.  Kendal,  it  may  be  added,  was 
also  noted  for  the  manufacture  of  cloth  caps  and 
the  long  woollen  stockings  which  went  with  the 
knee  breeches  of  the  period. 


20  WOOL 

The  refugees,  of  course,  brought  other  trades 
to  England  besides  weaving,  London,  especially, 
being  enriched  by  the  new  industries.  They  were, 
for  instance,  famous  for  their  horticulture,  and 
are  said  to  have  started  the  gardens  still  to  be 
found  at  Wandsworth  and  other  places  on  the 
outskirts  of  London,  while  their  cultivation  of  the 
hop  plant,  which  the  Walloons  brought  with 
them,  led  to  the  making  of  the  old  distich  — 

"Hops,  Reformation,  Bays  and  Beer, 
Came  into  England  all  in  one 


The  rise  of  other  trades  and  industries  are 
foreign  to  the  present  purpose,  and  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  through  the  apprenticeship  system 
imposed  upon  the  refugees  the  native  population 
of  England  gradually  learned  to  practise  the  same 
branches  of  manufacture  as  the  immigrant  wool- 
workers,  and  to  build  up  a  great  and  profitable 
trade  for  themselves. 

"The  ribs  of  all  people  throughout  the  world," 
wrote  Matthew  Paris,  "are  kept  warm  by  the 
fleeces  of  English  wool,"  and  at  a  later  day  it  was 
possible  not  only  to  make  a  boast  of  having  sup- 
plied the  wool  in  its  raw  state,  but  of  having  as 
well  a  monopoly  of  the  world's  exports  of  the 
fully-manufactured  article. 


CHAPTER 

HOW   ENGLAND   TOOK   THE   LEAD 

CHANCING  to  look  in  at  the  open  door  of  a 
bleaching  works  in  the  North  recently,  I  was 
surprised  to  see  lying  on  the  bench  a  couple  of 
pairs  of  sabots  in  every  way  identical  with  those 
worn  by  the  peasantry  in  France,  Holland,  Bel- 
gium, and  other  western  countries  of  continental 
Europe.  To  the  lad  at  work  near  at  hand  these 
clumsy  wooden  shoes  were  nothing  more  than 
" Dutch  clogs"  used  occasionally  by  the  workmen 
in  place  of  their  own  iron-shod  footgear  to  obviate 
damage  to  the  cloth  they  were  called  upon  to  load 
and  unload,  but,  had  the  boy  known  it,  they  were 
admirably  calculated  to  light  up  and  link  up  the 
whole  of  England's  industrial  history.  In  a  flash 
the  mind  was  carried  back  over  seven  centuries, 
to  the  times  when  those  ingenious,  peace-loving 
exiles  first  set  foot  in  feudal  England,  and  then  to 
a  still  later  day  when  England,  improving  upon 
the  work  of  her  benefactors,  laid  the  foundation 
of  our  textile  industries  on  a  sure  and  lasting 
basis.  But  though  they  were  long  ago  beaten  in 

21 


22  WOOL 

the  race,  it  says  much  for  the  pertinacity  and  en- 
terprise of  those  early  settlers  that  their  wooden 
shoes  are  heard  clattering  down  the  centuries,  and 
that  the  trades  they  established  in  the  land  of 
their  adoption  are  now  among  the  greatest  indus- 
tries in  the  world.  Here  and  there  a  Flemish 
name,  too,  lingers  to  link  up  the  present  with  the 
past,  but  beyond  this,  and  the  insistent  evidence 
of  the  clog,  there  is  hardly  anything  left  to  mark 
the  peaceful  invasion  of  a  former  day.  The  in- 
dustry of  wool  has  taken  upon  itself  an  entirely 
modern  aspect,  and  its  romance  is  now  distinctly 
of  the  Kiplingesque  variety.  The  picture  of  Evan- 
geline  beside  her  wheel  has  gone,  and  the  hand- 
loom  only  remains  as  a  frame  upon  which  the 
up-to-date  designer  works  out  a  complicated  pat- 
tern in  power-spun  yarns. 

Natural  advantages,  coupled  with  the  special 
genius  of  the  people,  no  doubt  accounts  for  subse- 
quent British  supremacy,  and  more  especially  for 
the  great  bulk  of  the  woollen  trade  finding  its  way 
to  the  district  north  of  the  Trent.  The  first 
immigrants,  it  is  well  to  remember,  knew  nothing 
of  cotton;  they  were  all  woollen  spinners,  weavers, 
and  finishers,  who  would  require  fulling  mills  and 
an  abundance  of  water.  Where,  then,  would  they 
be  likely  to  get  ideal  conditions  for  turning  their 
waterwheels  and  scouring  the  products  of  their 


HOW  ENGLAND  TOOK  THE  LEAD   23 

looms?  Where  better  than  in  the  cloughs  and 
dells  bordering  upon  the  hills  which  make  up  the 
Pennine  Chain?  The  Norfolk  Broads,  no  doubt, 
supplied  more  or  less  adequately  the  early  wants 
of  the  Flemings,  but  nowhere  in  the  country  were 
the  natural  conditions  so  propitious  as  among  the 
hills  and  dales  of  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire.  In 
the  small  valleys  of  the  Pennines  to-day  can  be 
found  ruins  of  fulling  mills  which  by  their  age 
may  have  done  duty  for  the  very  people  with 
whom  we  are  now  dealing.  We  all  know,  too, 
that  the  suitability  of  the  northern  climate  for 
both  spinning  and  weaving  is  unrivalled  in  any 
part  of  the  country,  and  this,  of  course,  would  act 
as  an  extra  inducement  to  settlement  north  of 
the  Trent. 

This  matter  of  climatic  fitness  is,  indeed,  worthy 
of  special  note.  We  know,  of  course,  that  it  has 
become  almost  second  nature  to  abuse  everything 
connected  with  our  damp  and  clammy  atmosphere, 
and  yet  Englishmen,  on  reflection,  ought  rather  to 
be  paying  daily  tributes  to  the  water  deity.  There 
is  scarcely  anything  in  which  we  excel  which 
is  not  due  either  to  the  dampness  of  our  climate 
or  the  virtues  of  our  water-brooks.  It  is  the 
water  that  makes  Burton  famous  for  its  ale,  that 
gives  Sheffield  an  advantage  in  tempering  steel, 
and  obtains  for  certain  parts  of  Ireland  and  Scot- 


24  WOOL 

land  supremacy  in  finishing  linen  fabrics;  the  hu- 
midity of  the  climate  in  the  country  lying  near 
the  Pennine  range  of  hills  has  helped  to  make 
textile  manufacturing  in  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire what  it  is.  Germany  at  one  time  imported 
Sheffield  water  in  hogsheads  in  order  to  produce, 
if  possible,  the  best  class  of  cutlery,  and  similarly 
to-day  we  find  the  American  textile  manufacturer 
calling  to  his  aid  the  artificial  humidifier,  which, 
as  every  factory  operative  knows,  cannot  in  any 
way  compete  with  our  own  moist  climate  in  keep- 
ing ends  together  and  weaving  "good." 

If  we  are  to  believe  that  the  exceptional  water 
facilities  of  the  North  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with 
the  settlement  of  the  Netherlanders  in  the  first 
instance,  we  may  conclude  that  the  discovery  of 
coal  at  a  later  stage  would  be  responsible  for  their 
final  adoption  of  the  North  as  a  place  of  habita- 
tion. Mr.  Neil  Munro,  in  one  of  his  historical 
novels,  speaks  of  the  almost  insuperable  obstacles 
which  were  placed  in  the  way  of  the  Lowland 
"tradesmen"  who  were  imported  into  the  High- 
lands by  one  of  the  Dukes  of  Argyll — how  they 
were  driven  and  harassed  by  the  unruly  clansmen 
amongst  whom  they  had  settled,  and  how  their 
very  peaceableness  was  an  offence  in  the  eyes  of 
men  whose  lives  were  chiefly  devoted  to  maraud- 
ing and  fighting.  No  doubt  the  Flemish  were 


HOW  ENGLAND  TOOK  THE  LEAD   25 

made  to  suffer  in  a  similar  way  when  they  first 
settled  in  the  North  of  England;  indeed,  it  is  on 
record  that  robbers  and  freebooters  harried  them 
so  persistently  that  the  king,  unable  to  give  them 
adequate  protection  in  the  wild  North,  moved 
them  to  the  West  of  England,  where  they  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  broad-cloth  manufacture  for 
which  that  part  of  the  country  was  for  so  long 
famous. 

Macaulay  states  that  the  lawless  manners  of 
the  people  on  the  Scottish  border  had  originally 
much  to  do  with  the  difficulties  of  settlement  in 
the  North,  the  disturbances  being  not  confined  to 
the  border  line  between  the  two  countries,  but 
spreading  for  many  miles  south  of  the  Tweed. 
"Slowly  and  with  difficulty,"  he  says,  "peace  was 
established  on  the  border.  In  the  train  of  peace 
came  industry  and  all  the  arts  of  life.  Meanwhile, 
it  was  discovered  that  the  regions  north  of  the 
Trent  possessed  in  their  coal  beds  a  source  of 
wealth  far  more  precious  than  the  gold  mines  of 
Peru.  It  was  found  that  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
these  beds  almost  every  manufacture  might  be 
most  profitably  carried  on.  A  constant  stream  of 
emigrants  began  to  roll  northward."  It  therefore 
seems  likely  that,  once  the  Netherlanders  had 
settled  as  far  north  as  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire, 
they  would  be  retained  there  when  coalfields  began 


26  WOOL 

to  be  developed  and  the  introduction  of  steam 
caused  the  industry  to  become  more  profitable 
than  ever  for  both  master  and  man. 

In  the  early  days  practically  every  county  in  the 
three  kingdoms  did  hand-spinning  and  weaving 
as  an  adjunct  to  the  industry  of  agriculture,  but 
gradually  it  happened  that  more  attention  was 
paid  to  the  trade  in  those  parts  where  the  returns 
from  agricultural  pursuits  were  poorer.  It  was 
noticed  in  the  sixteenth  century  that  the  trade  in 
Yorkshire  woollens  was  most  actively  engaged  in 
"where  the  fertilitie  of  ground  ys  not  apt  to  bring 
forth  any  corne  nor  good  grasse,"  and  Defoe  in 
his  tour  through  the  country  in  1722  also  states 
that  these  auxiliary  industries  were  to  be  found 
flourishing  best  in  those  parts  where  the  land  was 
poor,  notably  in  the  more  barren  places  in  and 
near  the  Pennine  slopes.  The  houses  on  the 
Yorkshire  side  particularly  were,  he  said,  "full  of 
lusty  Fellows,  some  at  the  Dye-vat,  some  at  the 
Loom,  others  dressing  the  Cloth;  the  Women  and 
Children  carding  or  spinning;  all  employed  from 
the  youngest  to  the  oldest;  scarce  anything  above 
four  years  old,  but  its  hands  were  sufficient  for 
its  own  support.  Not  a  beggar  to  be  seen,  not  an 
idle  Person,  except  here  and  there  in  an  Alms- 
house,  built  for  those  that  are  ancient  and  past 
working." 


HOW  ENGLAND  TOOK  THE  LEAD        27 

Indeed,  anywhere  in  the  North  country  in  those 
days  one  might  be  almost  sure  to  find  that  where 
a  man  had  a  few  acres  of  ground  and  a  small  farm 
there  would  be  in  his  house  a  place  for  three  or 
four  looms,  and  there  the  art  which  had  been 
learned  from  the  Flemings  would  be  carried  on 
by  members  of  the  family,  aided,  perhaps,  by  one 
or  two  apprentices. 

It  was  in  these  communities,  larger  and  keener 
than  in  parts  of  the  country  where  life  was  taken 
more  easily,  that  specialisation  and  co-operation 
began  to  tell,  and  where  curious  and  ingenious 
minds  began  to  seek  out  means  for  so  improving 
machinery  as  to  give  them  distinct  advantages 
over  their  competitors.  As  we  have  seen,  the 
climate  did  much,  but  dogged  determination  and 
untiring  energy  did  even  more.  Almost  imper- 
ceptibly the  industry  changed.  Shrewd  heads 
began  to  see  that  there  was  more  money  in  the 
manufacture  of  woollen  "pieces"  than  in  trying 
to  till  land  which  would  produce  "scarce  enough 
corn  to  feed  their  cocks  and  hens,"  and  the  wealth- 
ier among  them  gradually  developed  into  em- 
ployers of  their  less  fortunate  neighbours,  and 
began  to  establish  a  regular  and  more  substantial 
trade  with  the  merchant  class. 

Almost  every  cottager  came  to  have  his  "loom- 
house,"  and  there  was  hi  the  North  in  the  seven- 


28  WOOL 

teenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  no  more  familiar 
figure  than  the  old  hand-loom  weaver  in  his  blue 
apron,  standing  at  odd  moments  at  his  doorway 
smoking  his  long  clay  pipe,  or  perhaps  trudging 
along  the  country  roads,  under  the  weight  of  his 
heavy  pack  of  cloth,  on  his  way  to  the  house  of 
his  employer.  The  small  master  furnished  these 
domestic  weavers  with  yarn  to  be  woven  in  their 
cottages,  receiving  back  from  them  the  cloth  to  be 
dyed  and  finished,  after  which  it  was  sold  to  the 
big  clothiers  who  lived  in  the  large  industrial 
centres. 

Still,  things  went  on  in  a  rather  jog-trot  way  for 
a  long  time,  and  it  was  not  until  cotton  began  to 
loom  large  on  the  industrial  horizon  that  woollen 
manufacturers  were  enabled  to  take  a  great  bound 
forward.  The  men  who  did  so  much  for  the 
Yorkshire  trade  in  the  early  days  were,  curiously 
enough,  mostly  Lancashire  men,  some  of  whom 
were  actually  engaged  in  developing  the  newer 
industry.  John  Kay,  of  Bury,  the  first  of  the  big 
inventors,  however,  may  be  said  to  have  been  a 
woollen  man  pure  and  simple,  for  it  was  to  the 
problem  of  throwing  the  shuttle  across  the  broad 
woollen  loom  that  he  so  successfully  addressed 
himself.  By  Kay's  invention  the  production  of 
the  hand-loom  was  vastly  increased.  Before  his 
time  no  man  could  weave  a  wide  piece  except 


HOW  ENGLAND  TOOK  THE  LEAD   29 

very  slowly  and  with  the  most  primitive  appli- 
ances. The  shuttle  was  attached  to  something 
like  a  long  skewer,  which  had  to  be  passed  on 
from  hand  to  hand.  When  wide  goods,  such 
as  sheeting,  were  being  made,  it  actually  took 
two  men  to  hand  the  shuttle  along  and  work 
the  beam  as  well.  This  antiquated  method,  of 
course,  meant  that  as  both  hands  were  occupied 
with  the  shuttle  the  reed  could  only  be  advanced 
to  beat  up  the  weft  while  the  shuttle  was  at  rest  at 
one  end  of  the  loom.  Kay  introduced  a  "picker" 
or  thrower  to  the  shuttle,  which  could  be  worked 
by  one  hand  and  left  the  other  free  to  work  the 
reed,  thus  greatly  increasing  the  speed  at  which 
the  weaver  could  work.  It  was  undoubtedly  a 
great  step  forward,  and  there  is  no  question  that 
the  invention  placed  this  country  in  the  front 
rank  in  the  world's  markets  for  textile  manu- 
factures. 

As  Kay's  invention  quadrupled  the  productive 
power  of  the  weaver,  there  was  naturally  a  much 
greater  demand  for  weft,  and  this  started  another 
Lancashire  man — James  Hargreaves,  of  Blackburn 
— on  the  search  for  a  means  of  increasing  the  out- 
put of  the  spinning  wheel.  The  story  goes  that 
the  idea  of  the  spinning  jenny  was  revealed  to 
him  through  his  wife,  who  was  named  Jenny, 
accidentally  overturning  a  Saxony  wheel,  and 


30  WOOL 

disclosing  to  him  how  a  spindle,  placed  vertically, 
might  be  made  to  work  on  a  manifold  system.  The 
result  of  his  efforts,  with  small  means  and  the 
most  primitive  tools,  was  that  he  at  length  suc- 
ceeded in  making  a  hand-frame  which  enabled 
eight  threads  instead  of  one  to  be  spun,  and,  with 
this  invention  as  a  basis,  Richard  Arkwright,  of 
Preston,  and  Samuel  Crompton,  of  Bolton,  later 
on  made  spinning  frames  which  would  spin  not 
only  weft,  but  warp  as  well,  and  that  at  a  vastly 
higher  rate  of  speed,  while  Crompton  also  made 
it  possible  to  spin  the  finest  material  on  the  largest 
frames,  a  problem  which  for  a  long  time  seemed 
well-nigh  impossible  of  solution.  Later  again, 
when  spinning  had  had  its  turn,  Edmund  Cart- 
wright,  of  Marnham,  in  Nottinghamshire,  took 
up  the  loom  practically  where  Kay  and  his  son 
had  left  it,  and  after  much  trouble  and  opposi- 
tion made  weaving  by  steam-power  practicable. 

Meanwhile,  Yorkshire  was  turning  its  attention 
to  the  improvement  of  some  of  the  earlier  processes 
of  worsted  manufacture,  and  especially  to  the 
problem  of  combing  wool  by  mechanical  means. 
In  this  connection  there  is  one  name  particularly 
deserving  of  mention,  belonging  as  it  does  to  one 
who  is  worthy  to  rank  with  the  master  minds  who 
first  revolutionised  the  textile  trade  not  only  of 
this  country,  but  of  the  whole  world.  It  is  the 


HOW  ENGLAND  TOOK  THE  LEAD       31 

name  of  Samuel  Cunliffe  Lister  (afterwards  Lord 
Masham),  who  did  no  little  to  raise  Bradford  to  its 
dominating  position  in  the  woollen  trade  of  the 
world. 

Lister  was  born  in  the  famous  year  of  1815,  and 
by  the  time  he  was  old  enough  to  enter  business 
trade  was  in  a  state  of  rapid  expansion,  presenting 
splendid  opportunities  to  men  of  inventive  skill 
and  business  aptitude.  When  he  and  his  brother 
commenced  business  as  manufacturers  of  worsted 
stuffs,  the  power-loom  had  only  been  invented  by 
Dr.  Cartwright  some  ten  years,  but  spinning  and 
weaving  had  arrived  at  a  comparatively  efficient 
stage.  Hand-labour,  however,  still  prevailed  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  the  preparation  of  wool,  and 
rich  rewards  awaited  the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  how  to  comb  wool  by  machinery  subsequent 
to  the  wool  being  washed  and  dried.  Some  meas- 
ure of  success  had  already  been  achieved  by 
Cartwright,  Donisthorpe,  and  others  in  dealing 
with  the  coarser  wools,  but  it  still  remained  im- 
possible to  treat  by  mechanical  means  the  finer 
qualities  which  go  to  the  manufacture  of  the 
best  kinds  of  worsteds.  Lister  and  Donisthorpe, 
in  this  country,  and  Heilmann,  of  Alsace,  arrived 
almost  simultaneously  upon  the  solution  of  the 
problem,  but  Lister,  through  purchasing  Heil- 
mann's  English  patent  rights  and  improving  the 


32  WOOL 

machine  almost  out  of  recognition,  held  for  many 
years  a  practical  monopoly  of  the  wool-combing 
industry.  It  was  at  Manningham  Mills,  in  Brad- 
ford, that  fine,  or  botany,  wool  was  first  combed 
by  machinery,  and  so  great  was  the  success  of 
Lister's  wool-comber  that  spinning  firms  were 
glad  to  buy  the  machines  and  pay  him  a  royalty 
of  a  thousand  pounds  on  each. 

It  was  by  such  inventions  as  these,  aided  by  the 
introduction  of  the  factory  system,  that  the  manu- 
facturers of  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire  were  able  to 
out-distance  all  competitors.  It  was  facility  rather 
than  superiority  of  production  which  won  in  a  day 
when  the  world  was  crying  out  to  be  more  cheaply 
clothed;  and,  despite  the  progress  in  machinery, 
even  to-day  the  best  and  most  durable  woollen 
materials  are  made  by  hand. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  do  more  than  mention 
the  troubles  which  have  marked  almost  every  step 
in  the  progress  of  woollen  manufacture.  The  early 
textile  workers  exhibited  the  same  opposition  to 
machinery  that  was  shown  in  later  years,  and  as 
long  ago  as  1482  a  petition  was  presented  to  those 
in  authority  against  the  use  of  fulling  mills. 
Among  many  obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  develop- 
ing trade  may  be  mentioned  the  onslaught  made 
upon  John  Kay,  the  man  who  first  speeded  up  the 
hand-loom  by  means  of  the  "picking-stick."  Kay 


HOW  ENGLAND  TOOK  THE  LEAD   33 

not  only  had  his  invention  pirated,  but  in  1753 
his  house  at  Bury  was  broken  into  and  sacked  by 
a  mob  of  operatives  jealous  of  innovations  which 
they  believed  threatened  their  livelihood,  and  he 
barely  escaped  with  his  life.  As  a  consequence,  he 
migrated  to  France,  and  there  died  in  poverty  and 
obscurity.  Other  inventors  who  succeeded  him 
were  persecuted  in  a  similar  way,  and  the  whole 
history  of  the  rise  of  the  industry  is  punctu- 
ated with  riots  of  a  more  or  less  serious  nature, 
both  before  and  after  the  introduction  of  ma- 
chinery driven  by  steam-power.  Bradford,  being 
the  centre  of  the  wool  trade,  has  always  been 
a  stormy  district,  and  strikes,  some  attended  with 
great  violence,  have  been  frequent.  Perhaps  in 
recent  years  the  wool-combing  section  has  been 
more  involved  in  quarrels  between  master  and 
man  than  any  other,  for,  apart  from  the  labour- 
saving  devices  introduced  into  wool-combing,  there 
have  always  been  difficulties  with  regard  to  the  ir- 
regularity of  the  hours  and  the  casual  character 
of  the  employment. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SHEEP  AND   THE   WOOL  FIBRE 

SHEEP  have  always  been  more  or  less  of  a  puzzle 
to  naturalists  owing  to  the  difficulty  they  present 
in  the  matter  of  origin  and  classification.  It  is 
not  very  helpful,  perhaps,  to  speak  of  them  as 
"a  genus  of  ruminant  quadrupeds  of  the  family 
Capridse,  so  nearly  allied  to  goats  that  the  propri- 
ety of  generic  distinction  is  very  doubtful";  it 
would  be  much  more  interesting  if  we  could  say 
with  more  exactitude  from  which  of  the  wild 
species  the  domesticated  animal  has  sprung,  and 
what  country  or  race  first  discovered  and  devel- 
oped it.  All  we  know  is  that  its  origin  is  lost 
in  antiquity,  and  that  it  seems  to  have  been 
"tended"  (and  consequently  domesticated)  long 
before  history  was  recorded.  While  it  is  sup- 
posed by  some  that  all  the  wild  sheep  existing  in 
the  world  are  mere  varieties  of  one  species,  that 
species  cannot  be  identified,  nor  can  it  be  said 
from  which  of  these  branches  the  domestic  sheep 
is  to  be  traced.  We  are  perhaps  on  safe  ground 
when  we  say  that  the  sheep  was  the  first  animal 

34 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          35 

domesticated  by  man,  as  the  weaving  or  felting 
of  wool  was  among  the  earliest  of  the  arts.  What 
we  do  know,  also,  is  that  wild  sheep  have  but  a 
scanty  supply  of  short  wool,  with  an  outer  cover- 
ing of  hair,  and  that  the  more  the  sheep  is  brought 
into  cultivation  the  shorter  and  scarcer  the  hair 
and  the  greater  the  yield  of  pure  and  good  wool. 

It  must,  from  the  very  earliest  times,  however, 
have  been  an  animal  much  prized  by  man,  for  not 
only  do  we  find  its  fleece  and  its  flesh  greatly 
esteemed,  but  dead  and  alive  it  can  be  put  to 
many  excellent  uses.  Its  milk,  though  somewhat 
strongly  flavoured,  has  always  been  sought  after 
in  Oriental  countries;  it  has  been  found  particu- 
larly useful  as  a  beast  of  burden  in  hilly  and  rocky 
country  in  India  and  elsewhere;  and  in  more 
modern  times  its  skin  has  been  tanned  into  leather 
and  used  extensively  for  bookbinding  and  the 
making  of  gloves.  Indeed,  the  carcase  of  a  sheep 
can  nowadays  be  used  almost  as  economically  as 
that  of  the  pig. 

The  sheep  has  many  characteristics  peculiar  to 
itself,  and  many  which  are  contrary  to  those 
which  govern  other  animals.  For  instance,  most 
animals  intended  for  human  food  will  have  their 
flesh  greatly  improved  in  flavour  by  feeding  on 
rich  foods  or  in  lush  pastures;  but  the  sheep  shows 
a  decided  preference  for  bare  living,  and  the 


36  WOOL 

mutton  produced  on  the  short,  scanty  grass  of 
upland  places  is  generally  of  better  quality  than 
that  of  the  sheep  pastured  on  richer  lands.  It  is 
contrary  in  other  respects — its  stupidity  in  blindly 
following  the  leader  of  the  flock  has  made  its 
"silliness"  proverbial  among  country  people;  but 
a  shepherd  will  tell  you  that  it  is  by  no  means 
so  devoid  of  intelligence  as  casual  observance 
supposes.  Neither  do  the  folk  sayings  which 
cluster  round  the  sheep  argue  great  wisdom  on 
the  part  of  those  who  tend  the  flocks.  What 
foundation,  for  instance,  can  there  be  for  the 
contention  that  "Leap  year  is  never  a  good  sheep 
year"?  Surely  an  added  day  to  the  calendar 
cannot  prejudice  either  sheep  or  man  very  greatly, 
and  the  saying  must  have  originated  with  one 
whose  rhyme  was  vastly  superior  to  his  reason. 

The  breeds  of  sheep  are  as  numerous  as  they  are 
varied.  Apart  altogether  from  the  many  kinds  of 
wild  mountain  sheep,  which  must  be  countless  in 
number,  the  domesticated  animals  are  bewilder- 
ing in  their  quantity  and  variety.  Nearly  every 
nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe  boasts  flocks  of 
one  kind  or  another,  the  types  differing  in  every 
climate  and  every  latitude.  All  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  fleeces  are  to  be  found  in  which  wool 
and  hair  are  present  in  varying  quantities,  but  for 
present  purposes  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  a 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          37 

survey  of  those  animals  which  produce  wool  that 
can  be  most  easily  used  for  manufacturing  pur- 
poses. The  rougher  of  these  wools,  which  often 
contain  much  hair,  are  chiefly  used  for  carpet- 
making,  and  the  purer  wools  are  made  into  cloth- 
ing. Carpets  are  an  Eastern  institution,  and  the 
sheep  which  provide  them  are,  speaking  generally, 
Oriental  in  origin;  but  the  clothing  wools  are 
essentially  European,  or  were  in  the  beginning. 
Greece  and  Rome  made  good  use  of  their  flocks, 
and  England  can  boast  of  having  raised  sheep 
from  a  very  early  age.  English  wool  was  for  long 
sought  after  by  Continental  manufacturers,  and 
down  to  this  day  she  has  maintained  her  great 
flocks;  but  if  she  cannot  herself  now  boast  a  su- 
periority in  numbers,  she  is  aware  that  within  the 
British  Empire  are  more  sheep  than  in  all  the 
other  parts  of  the  world  put  together. 

Some  account  is  given  in  other  chapters  in  this 
volume  of  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the 
development  of  the  sheep  industry  in  Australia 
and  other  countries  from  an  original  stock  of 
Spanish  sheep  of  merino  breed,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  brief  survey  is  taken  of  the  numbers  and 
breeds  to  be  found  in  various  parts  of  the  globe. 
Outside  the  all-conquering  merino  strain,  how- 
ever, it  will  be  found  that  Britain  has  directly  oj* 
indirectly  supplied  the  foundations  of  most  of  the 


38  WOOL 

world's  flocks.  The  British  Isles,  indeed,  may  be 
said  to  epitomise  the  whole  sheep  populations  of 
the  two  hemispheres,  for  there  are  few  varieties 
of  domestic  sheep  outside  the  merino  which  have 
not  had  their  origin  in  Great  Britain. 

The  question  as  to  which  was  the  original  type 
in  Great  Britain  is  a  little  difficult  to  answer,  but 
perhaps  the  black-faced  variety  to  be  found  in  the 
North  of  England  and  in  Scotland  is  as  near  to  the 
original  as  any  breed  now  existing.  They  are  a 
hardy,  horned  breed  with  good  mutton  qualities, 
but  the  wool,  although  valuable,  is  not  of  the  best 
class  that  England  can  produce.  The  Welsh  and 
the  Cheviot  breeds  are  the  next  higher  in  scale, 
the  fleece  of  the  latter,  which  are  found  in  many 
parts  of  England  as  well  as  in  the  Cheviot  district, 
being  very  highly  esteemed.  The  Welsh  sheep 
are  prized  more  particularly  for  their  mutton 
qualities.  The  Leicester  is  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able of  the  native  breeds.  Formerly,  the  sheep  of 
that  name  was  big,  but  coarse;  but  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  its  development 
was  taken  in  hand,  and  the  New  Leicester,  as  it 
was  afterwards  called,  became  known  as  an  ani- 
mal of  excellent  shape  and  capable  of  producing 
the  best  of  wool.  It  also  had  the  quality  of  being 
easily  fattened.  Of  late  years  it  has  been  largely 
used  for  crossing  with  other  breeds,  and  some 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          39 

fine  long-woolled  sheep  have  been  the  result.  The 
most  notable  successes  have  been  crosses  with 
Lincolns,  Romney  Marsh,  and  others.  The 
Leicester,  indeed,  may  be  said  to  have  done  more 
for  the  improvement  of  British  stock  than  any 
other  breed.  The  Lincoln,  a  cross  between  the 
improved  Leicester  and  the  native  sheep  of  the 
county,  is  another  excellent  long-woolled  sheep — 
one  of  the  best  that  England  produces.  The 
wool,  besides  being  long,  is  lustrous,  and  the 
fleece  is  often  of  remarkable  weight.  The  Cots- 
wolds  are  also  famous  long-woolled  sheep,  and 
were  highly  prized  as  long  ago  as  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries.  At  one  time  their  wool 
commanded  higher  prices  than  any  other.  The 
Southdown  has  of  late  years  been  improved  with 
the  utmost  care,  with  the  result  that  it  now  pro- 
duces splendid  short,  curled  wool.  There  are  a 
host  of  other  fine  sheep — the  Shropshire,  with  a 
good  thick  wool  something  like  the  Southdown, 
the  long-woolled  Devon,  the  popular  Romney 
Marsh,  the  Suffolk,  the  Wensleydale,  and 
many  valuable  Scottish  breeds.  The  Ros- 
common  is  the  principal  breed  in  Ireland,  being 
a  native  variety  improved  by  crossing  with  the 
Leicester. 

Turning  from  sheep  to  the  wool  fibre,  it  may  be 
said  tjiat  hair  and  wool,  so  closely  allied,  are  of 


40  WOOL 

Nature's  own  choosing  for  the  protection  of  the 
brute  beasts;  and  man,  so  far,  has  found  nothing 
comparable  with  them  as  shields  against  the  cold 
and  stormy  elements.  In  the  more  northerly 
climates  wool  is  indispensable,  and  pure  wool  is  of 
inestimable  benefit  in  climates  which  are  con- 
sidered much  more  genial  than  our  own.  Even  in 
tropical  and  sub-tropical  countries  there  are,  at 
certain  times  of  the  year,  great  extremes  in  tem- 
perature in  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours,  and 
the  value  of  good  woollen,  with  its  slow  heat- 
conducting  properties,  is  incalculable. 

England  still  consumes  a  full  two-thirds  of  the 
output  of  her  mills,  and  America  is  so  sensible 
of  her  personal  comfort  that  while  she  hampers 
Yorkshire  worsted  cloths  in  every  possible  way 
with  her  tariffs,  she  is  only  too  pleased  to  make 
special  terms  in  the  case  of  English  flannels  and 
blankets.  "Our  Lady  of  the  Snows,"  too,  may 
resent  the  name  when  applied  to  her  in  her  char- 
acter of  universal  wheat  provider,  but  she  knows 
the  value  of  good  English-manufactured  wool, 
nevertheless,  and  spends  more  money  on  the 
commodity  every  year  than  all  the  other  parts 
of  the  Empire  put  together. 

There  is  a  division  of  opinion  among  experts  as 
to  what  wool  really  is,  one  contending  that  it  is 
a  modified  form  of  hair,  and  another  that  wool 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          41 

and  hair  have  no  affinity  whatever.  The  former 
opinion  is  held  by  Professor  Barker,  the  well- 
known  Yorkshire  authority,  and  it  must  be  said 
that  he  makes  out  a  very  strong  case  for  his 
contention.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  cover- 
ing of  many  animals  of  the  family  to  which  the 
sheep  belongs  is  hair,  and  the  wilder  the  animal 
the  coarser  and  rougher  the  hair.  When  wild 
sheep  are  brought  into  captivity,  the  hair  on  their 
bodies  diminishes  in  quantity  and  the  growth  of 
wool  increases;  and  when  domesticated  sheep  are 
left  to  return  to  a  wild  state,  they  display  a  de- 
cided tendency  to  the  formation  of  hair  among  the 
wool.  Just  at  what  point  an  animal  fibre  ceases 
to  be  hair  and  becomes  wool  it  is  impossible  to 
determine.  Professor  Barker,  who  wrote  the 
excellent  article  on  the  subject  which  appears  in 
the  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  states  that  one 
gradually  merges  into  the  other,  until  a  continuous 
chain  can  be  formed  from  the  finest  and  softest 
merino  wool  to  the  rigid  bristles  of  the  wild  boar. 
Thus,  he  says,  the  fine  soft  wool  of  the  Australian 
merino  merges  into  the  cross-bred  of  New  Zealand; 
the  cross-bred  of  New  Zealand  merges  into  the 
long  English  and  lustre  wool;  which  in  turn  merges 
into  alpaca  and  mohair — materials  with  clearly 
marked  but  undeveloped  scale  structure.  Again, 
such  animals  as  the  camel  and  the  Cashmere 


42  WOOL 

goat  yield  fibres  which  it  would  be  difficult  to 
class  rigidly  as  either  wool  or  hair. 

The  writer  on  the  subject  in  "Chambers's 
Encyclopaedia"  differs  on  this  point.  Wool,  he 
says,  is  frequently  defined  as  a  species  of  hair,  but 
it  differs  from  this  filament  in  possessing  a  more 
fully  developed  serrated  circumference,  and  an 
increased  degree  of  flexibility,  waviness  and  elas- 
ticity. Youatt,  an  older  but  very  influential 
authority,  thus  describes  the  differences:  "The 
fibre  of  wool  is  crisped  or  curled,  the  curls  in- 
creasing with  the  fineness  and  felting  property 
of  the  wool,  and  in  addition  to  this  its  surface  is 
decidedly  serrated.  On  the  contrary,  hair,  though 
sometimes  curled,  has  its  surface  only  scaly  or 
rugose,  and  never  truly  serrated;  and  hence  it  is 
that  hair,  though  it  will  entangle  and  harle,  will 
not  felt  into  a  compact  mass.  As  respects  chemical 
composition,  hair  and  wool  are  alike." 

Mr.  Walter  S.  B.  McLaren,  M.P.,  who  speaks 
with  full  practical  knowledge,  thus  amplified 
Youatt's  description  of  hair  and  wool:  "A  hair 
has  a  smooth  surface,  comparatively  free  from 
jagged  edges  or  serratures  of  any  size,  and  lies 
straight;  while  the  fibre  of  wool  is  more  or  less 
waved,  and  is  covered  with  serratures.  A  fibre  of 
wool  may,  in  fact,  be  likened  to  a  serpent's  skin 
or  to  a  fir  cone  covered  with  scales.  The  serra- 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          43 

tures,  or  saw-like  teeth,  representing  these  scales, 
overlap  each  other  and  present  innumerable  little 
points,  which  act  as  hooks.  They  are  extremely 
small,  and  in  the  fibre  they  are  said  to  run  from 
1,200  to  3,000  per  inch.  When  wool  is  spun  these 
serratures  to  some  extent  fit  into  or  catch  each 
other,  and  help  to  bind  the  fibre  together;  conse- 
quently, other  things — such  as  length,  quality, 
&c. — being  equal,  wool  which  has  many  serratures 
will  spin  better  than  wool  which  has  few." 

Under  the  microscope  it  can  be  seen  that  in  the 
fibre  of  the  fine  merino  there  are  about  2,400 
serrations  in  the  space  of  an  inch,  while  in  the 
finest  quality  of  all — the  wool  from  Saxony — no 
fewer  than  2,720  serrations  to  the  inch  have  been 
counted.  Wools  of  coarser  quality  have  fewer 
serrations  and  lower  felting  properties;  that  is  to 
say,  they  are  smoother  and  do  not  so  easily  cling 
together. 

On  examining  the  wool  fibre  more  minutely, 
says  one  authority,  it  is  found  to  consist  of  three 
principal  parts — (1)  the  outer  scales;  (2)  the 
inner  bark  or  cortical  substance;  and  (3)  the 
medullary  or  central  portion.  The  external  scales 
may  be  defined  as  flattened  horny  cells.  They 
form  the  sheath  or  bark  of  the  fibre.  Their  dimen- 
sions, uniformity,  soundness,  and  compactness 
determine  the  lustre,  firmness,  and  strength  of  the 


44  WOOL 

wool.  The  felting  or  fulling  power  is  also  primarily 
due  to  their  presence  in  the  fibre,  being  high  or  low 
in  proportion  to  their  multiplicity  and  strength. 
These  marginal  scales  are  the  most  numerous  in 
fine  wools,  and,  as  indicated  in  relation  to  wool, 
mohair  and  cashmere,  differ  so  largely  in  forma- 
tion and  arrangement  in  different  kinds  of  wool 
as  to  make  it  feasible  in  some  instances  to  dis- 
tinguish the  variety  of  fibre  examined  by  its  ser- 
rated surface.  The  interior  of  the  filament  is 
composed  of  spindle-shaped  cells.  Upon  the 
density  of  these  cells — which  form  the  largest 
proportion  of  the  fibre — the  elasticity  and  true- 
ness  of  the  wool  depend.  Moreover,  this  part 
of  the  fibre  is  said  to  possess  greater  affinity  for 
colouring  agents  than  the  external  scales.  The 
third  or  medullary  part  of  the  wool  filament 
consists  of  several  layers  of  oval  cells  which  form 
the  pith  or  core  of  the  fibre.  Occasionally  these 
run  the  entire  length  of  the  hair,  but  they  may 
only  occur  at  intervals.  Their  functions  in  the 
structure  of  the  fibre  have  not  been  fully  de- 
termined. 

There  are  not  only  very  great  differences  be- 
tween one  breed  of  sheep  and  another  with  respect 
to  the  quality  of  wool  they  yield,  but  there  are 
also  great  differences  in  the  quality  of  wool  ob- 
tained from  any  individual  sheep,  and  the  buyer 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          45 

of  wool  for  the  manufacturer,  therefore,  must  of 
necessity  be  a  man  of  great  experience  and  keen 
observation.  He  has  to  examine  it  not  only  for 
length  of  "staple" — which  is  the  technical  name 
for  a  lock  or  strand  of  fibres — but  for  fineness,  for 
strength,  for  its  lustrousness,  its  felting  properties, 
and  for  many  other  special  and  peculiar  qualities. 

Appearances  to  any  but  an  expert  might  be  very 
deceptive.  Take,  for  instance,  the  strengths  of 
the  best-known  long  and  short  wools.  Lincoln 
wool,  in  point  of  strength,  is  far  superior  to  the 
wool  of  the  Australian  merino  sheep,  its  breaking 
strain,  according  to  Bowman,  being  502  grains, 
while  the  Australian  is  50  grains;  but  for  all  that, 
it  is  said  to  be  possible  to  obtain  from  the  short 
merino  wool  a  cloth  capable  of  sustaining  greater 
strain  and  friction  than  can  be  produced  from 
Lincoln.  The  reason  given  is  two-fold.  In  the 
first  place,  the  merino  is  ranker  in  growth  and  the 
staple  more  compact;  and,  secondly,  it  has  superior 
felting  power  to  the  English  wool,  a  quality  which 
gives  greatly  increased  wearing  strength  to  woollen 
fabrics. 

Burnley,  the  well-known  author  of  "Wool  and 
Wool-Combing,"  minutely  classifies  the  various 
grades  of  wool  to  be  found  on  the  fleece  of  each 
sheep.  The  best  part  of  the  fleece  of  course — that 
is  to  say,  the  closest,  longest,  softest,  and  most 


46  WOOL 

even — grows  on  the  shoulders  and  sides  of  the 
animal;  the  yield  of  the  neck  is  a  trifle  inferior,  and 
on  the  loin  and  back  there  is  a  perceptible  falling 
off  in  fineness  and  length.  On  the  upper  part  of 
the  legs  the  staple  begins  to  hang  considerably, 
and  the  wool  of  the  upper  part  of  the  neck  is  of 
worse  quality  and  is  inclined  to  be  faulty.  At  the 
root  of  the  tail  the  fibre  is  coarser  and  more  glossy; 
and  at  the  lower  part  of  the  leg  the  grease  in  the 
wool  imparts  a  darker  shade,  and  the  staple  shows 
a  disposition  to  twist.  On  the  throat  the  fineness, 
softness,  and  curliness  reach  the  vanishing  point, 
and  patches  of  false  hair  occur;  the  wool  on  the 
head  is  short,  coarse,  harsh,  and  extremely  glossy; 
that  on  the  lower  part  of  the  throat  and  chest 
is  of  the  same  quality  as  that  on  the  throat  itself, 
though  shorter  through  the  friction  against  bars 
and  fences,  while  the  portion  of  fleece  growing 
on  the  shin  is  short,  glossy,  coarse,  and  dirty. 

Broadly  speaking,  wool  is  used  for  the  produc- 
tion of  two  grades  of  articles — "woollens,"  which 
comprise  flannels,  blankets,  tweeds  and  various 
heavy  milled  cloths,  and  "worsteds,"  the  lighter, 
finer  "stuffs,"  and  the  fancy  cloths  and  serges 
used  by  the  dressmaker  and  the  tailor.  The  first- 
named  are  produced  in  all  parts  of  the  British 
Isles,  but  chiefly  in  the  Dewsbury  and  Batley 
district  of  Yorkshire,  in  that  district  of  Lancashire 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          47 

which  has  Rochdale  for  its  centre,  in  Hawick, 
Galashiels,  and  other  towns  beyond  the  Scottish 
border,  and  in  the  West  of  England;  while  worsteds 
are  made  almost  entirely  to  the  east  of  the  Pen- 
nines  in  Yorkshire,  the  principal  district  outside 
Yorkshire  being  that  of  Hawick,  in  Scotland. 

As  regards  the  relative  importance  of  the  two 
sections,  it  may  be  stated  that  out  of  some  260,000 
persons  employed  in  these  industries  in  the  United 
Kingdom  in  normal  times  about  190,000  are  en- 
gaged in  the  worsted  trade  of  Yorkshire.  Bradford 
is  the  centre  of  this  great  worsted  industry,  and 
four-fifths  of  all  the  wool  imported  into  England 
as  well  as  a  huge  proportion  of  the  home  supply, 
goes  to  that  city  to  be  combed  into  "tops"  and 
spun  into  yarn.  The  quoted  figures  respecting  the 
number  of  workpeople  engaged  in  the  woollen  and 
worsted  trades  do  not,  of  course,  include  the  many 
thousands  employed  in  the  hosiery  trades  of  the 
Midlands,  where  vast  quantities  of  woollen  yarn 
are  consumed. 

The  main  differences  between  woollen  and 
worsted  are  to  be  found  in  the  processes  of  manu- 
facture, the  one  being  "carded,"  and  made  chiefly 
from  the  merino  and  shorter-stapled  colonial 
wools,  and  the  other  "combed"  from  the  longer 
Lincoln,  Leicester,  and  other  British  wools.  At 
least,  this  was  formerly  the  broad  distinction, 


48  WOOL 

but,  as  Burnley  says,  the  mechanical  contrivances 
of  modern  days  have  greatly  extended  the  scope 
both  of  the  woollen  and  the  worsted  manufacturer, 
giving  the  former  command  of  wools  that  in  times 
past  would  have  been  too  long  for  his  use,  and 
extending  to  the  latter  an  equal  power  over  shorter 
wools  which  under  the  old  system  could  not  have 
been  handled  in  the  worsted  processes.  Perhaps 
it  would  be  better  to  say,  therefore,  that  the  buyer 
nowadays  is  swayed  more  by  the  question  as  to 
whether  wools  have  the  felting  or  non-felting 
qualities,  for  in  woollens,  felting,  or  matting  to- 
gether the  fibres  of  wool  into  a  compact  sub- 
stance by  means  of  rolling,  beating  or  pressing, 
is  an  important  part  of  manufacture;  whereas 
worsteds  are  not  matted  at  all  in  most  cases,  but 
spun,  woven,  and  finished  in  such  a  way  as  to 
keep  the  threads  parallel  and  the  texture  clearly 
outlined.  The  short  and  curly  wools  are  in  con- 
sequence more  adapted  to  the  felting  process 
such  as  is  brought  into  operation  after  weaving 
flannels,  blankets,  and  the  fabrics  which  are  in- 
tended to  produce  the  more  densely-milled  cloths, 
while  the  longer  wools  are  more  fitted  for  the 
worsted  manufacturer. 

The  manufacturer  of  woollens  has  an  advantage 
in  that  he  can  at  the  present  day  employ  almost  all 
kinds  of  woolly  fibres — short  or  long,  thick  or  thin, 


SHEEP  AND  THE  WOOL  FIBRE          49 

curly  or  straight;  while  in  worsted  the  short  and 
refractory  fibres  have  to  be  eliminated,  and  the 
curly  threads  straightened  and  smoothed  out  as 
much  as  possible.  For  woollens,  which  are  many 
times  heavier  and  bulkier  than  worsteds,  the  fibres 
are  placed  in  all  directions,  overlapping  and  cross- 
ing each  other  in  every  conceivable  fashion;  while 
for  worsteds  they  are  kept  straight  and  parallel. 
As  regards  the  results  from  the  different  processes 
of  manufacture,  the  average  woollens,  after  being 
beaten  and  shrunk,  will  be  four  times  heavier  than 
worsteds,  although  worsteds,  made  from  more 
tightly  twisted  yarns,  may  actually  be  the  stronger 
in  the  piece. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY 

WHEN  an  estimate  has  to  be  made  of  the  sheep 
upon  a  thousand  hills,  and  those  hills  in  far  and 
remote  corners  of  the  world,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  task  is  no  easy  one,  and  the  difficulty  is  not 
decreased  when  one  attempts  to  form  an  idea  of 
the  world's  wool  supply.  The  statistics  relating 
to  wool  are  notoriously  at  variance.  One  diffi- 
culty lies  in  obtaining  definite  figures  relating  to 
"scoured"  and  "greasy"  wool,  and  the  yield  of 
the  clips  must  of  necessity  greatly  vary  from  year 
to  year  in  every  country.  The  estimates  of  such 
high  authorities  as  "Dalgety's  Annual"  and  the 
Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers  are  often  a 
long  way  out;  indeed,  there  is  many  a  time  a 
discrepancy  between  the  big  wool  experts  of  many 
millions  both  in  the  number  of  sheep  and  the 
number  of  pounds  of  wool  the  sheep  yield. 

Calculations,  again,  have  recently  been  alto- 
gether upset  by  the  great  European  War,  with  its 
abnormal  demands  for  military  purposes,  and  the 
upheaval  it  has  caused  in  the  markets  of  the 

50 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  51 

world.  The  British  manufacturers  of  wool  have 
known  no  such  activity  since  the  Franco-German 
War,  and,  when  war  broke  out  all  kinds  of  diffi- 
culties arose  owing  to  the  unprecedented  demand 
for  raw  material.  Not  only  was  there  a  call  for 
every  available  pound  of  wool  sheared  since  the 
war  began,  but  old  stocks  were  drawn  upon  to 
their  utmost  limit.  Transport  difficulties,  too, 
added  burdens  previously  unknown.  Owing  to 
the  heavy  demands  upon  shipping  by  the  military 
authorities,  the  number  of  vessels  available  for 
carrying  wool  from  Australia  and  South  America 
proved  totally  inadequate.  Matters  were  not 
improved  during  the  time  German  warships  were 
at  large  in  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic,  and  pri- 
vate buying  of  tens  of  thousands  of  bales  of  wool 
in  London  just  before  the  outbreak  of  war,  pre- 
sumably for  shipment  to  Germany,  complicated 
things  still  further. 

Those  trades  which  were  concerned  with  the 
supply  of  munitions  of  war  and  with  the  victuall- 
ing and  equipment  of  the  fighting  forces  were 
thrown  into  a  state  of  tremendous  activity.  To 
clothe  in  a  few  months  an  army  of  two  or  three 
million  men  was  a  big  enough  task  in  itself,  but 
on  the  top  of  that  the  wool  industry  of  England 
was  called  upon  to  provide  a  large  part  of  the 
clothing  needed  by  the  armies  of  the  Allies.  Hence 


52  WOOL 

a  rise  in  the  price  of  wool  altogether  unparalleled, 
and  hence  an  embargo  on  exports,  "reviving  a 
restriction  which  was  thought  to  have  been  swept 
away  for  ever  with  the  repeal,  a  century  ago,  of 
the  then  already  long  obsolete  statute  of  Charles 
II. — the  same  statute  that  required  every  Eng- 
lishman to  be  buried  in  a  woollen  shroud." 

The  war,  indeed,  brought  about  a  curious  state 
of  things,  for  while  a  languishing  trade  in  the 
woollen  districts  was  suddenly  revived  and  swollen 
to  an  extent  which  put  an  almost  unbearable 
strain  upon  both  workers  and  machinery,  the 
worsted  section  was  for  a  time  brought  almost 
face  to  face  with  utter  ruin.  This  was  due  to  the 
disorganisation  of  the  whole  export  trade.  More 
than  half  the  trade  of  Bradford,  the  great  centre 
of  the  worsted  trade,  is  with  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria, and  what  little  trade  might  have  been  main- 
tained with  allied  and  neutral  countries  was  cut 
off  by  the  embargo.  Consequently,  the  financial 
position,  in  Bradford  especially,  at  once  became 
most  acute.  It  was  estimated  there  were  due  to 
that  city  from  Germany  and  Austria  accounts 
amounting  to  £1,750,000,  the  liquidation  of  which 
was  impossible  while  the  war  lasted;  whilst  the 
total  indebtedness  to  Bradford  merchants  from 
all  countries  when  the  war  broke  out  was  put  at 
about  £7,000,000.  Some  relief  was  eventually 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  53 

given  to  the  financial  situation  by  the  Govern- 
ment arranging  for  banks  to  advance  50  per 
cent,  of  approved  foreign  debts,  but  though  this 
improved  the  relations  between  merchants  and 
spinners,  the  former,  in  face  of  the  prohibition  of 
certain  classes  of  exports,  were  for  the  most  part 
left  in  a  very  awkward  situation. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  not  only  is  there  the 
initial  difficulty  of  estimating  the  world's  stocks 
of  both  sheep  and  wool,  but  that  the  most  recent 
export  and  other  figures  would  be  totally  mis- 
leading as  a  guide  to  what  obtains  in  ordinary 
peace  times.  For  our  purposes  it  would  perhaps 
be  well  to  take  the  year  1913  as  the  period  for 
computation  and  comparison.  Going  back,  there- 
fore, to  the  state  of  things  which  existed  before 
the  war,  we  find  that  the  number  of  sheep  in  the 
world  at  the  close  of  1913,  as  estimated  by  the 
National  Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers  and 
set  forth  in  that  excellent  publication,  the  "Wool 
Year  Book,"  was: — 


54  WOOL 

United  Kingdom     .         .         .       31,082,461 
Other  European  countries          .     148,433,976 


Total  (Europe)       .         .     179,516,437 


Australia  and  New  Zealand .         .  117,011,654 

Asia 110,058,874 

Africa 51,429,279 

North  America         .         .         .  59,047,680 

South  America  109,693,142 


Total  (world)  .     626,757,066 

There  is  a  concurrence  of  English,  American, 
French,  and  Australian  estimates  giving  a  total 
of  3,000,000,000  Ibs.,  or  thereabouts,  as  the  proba- 
ble weight  of  the  supply  of  wool  in  the  raw  state. 
After  washing,  however,  it  would  not  weigh  more 
than  half  this  figure. 

Captain  C.  E.  W.  Bean,  the  well-known  Aus- 
tralian writer,  presented  an  interesting  analysis 
of  the  world's  wool  figures  in  a  paper  read  before 
the  Colonial  Section  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Arts 
some  time  ago.  Taking  Dalgety's  figures  as  his 
basis,  he  pointed  out  that  of  the  615,000,000  sheep 
of  all  classes,  which  that  authority  gives  as  the 
world's  estimate,  nearly  93,000,000  were  in  Aus- 
tralia, 24,000,000  in  New  Zealand,  and  22,000,000 
woolled  sheep  were  in  South  Africa.  That  is  to 
say,  that  in  these  three  British  States  in  the 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  55 

Southern  Ocean,  which  possessed  scarcely  any 
flocks  at  all  a  hundred  years  ago,  there  have 
grown  up  flocks  of  sheep  which  in  the  aggregate 
amount  to  nearly  139,000,000  head— by  far  the 
most  important  section  of  the  world's  sheep 
population  at  the  present  time.  If  to  these  are 
added  the  4,000,000  valuable  angoras  of  the  Cape, 
the  flocks  of  Canada  and  the  Falkland  Islands, 
and  the  30,000,000  sheep  of  the  British  Isles- 
still  among  the  most  important  sheep-producing 
countries  in  the  world — the  total  for  the  countries 
within  the  British  Empire  amount  to  nearly 
180,000,000.  Although  this  excludes  the  sheep  of 
British  India  (some  of  which  are  woolled  sheep  of 
considerable  value)  and  the  unwoolled  sheep  of 
Africa,  yet  it  amounts  to  nearly  a  third  of  the 
world's  sheep  in  numbers,  and  very  much  more 
than  that  in  value.  When  it  is  remembered,  said 
Captain  Bean,  that  the  only  land  amongst  all 
these  which  was  of  any  importance  a  hundred 
years  ago  was  Great  Britain  herself,  the  great 
change  which  has  taken  place  during  the  last 
century  may  to  some  extent  be  realised. 

Nearly  every  country  in  Europe  produces  wool 
in  greater  or  less  amount — not  omitting  the 
coarser  varieties  grown  in  Iceland  and  the  Faroe 
Islands.  Russia,  with  its  vast  area  of  pasture 
country,  takes  first  place  in  number  of  sheep,  but 


56  WOOL 

the  quality  is  greatly  varied.  A  fair  amount  of 
merino  wool  is  grown  in  the  Don  district,  but, 
speaking  generally,  the  sheep,  like  the  majority 
of  those  which  form  the  Asiatic  flocks,  are  best 
suited  to  provide  wools  for  carpet-making.  Asi- 
atic Turkey  exports  some  good  carpet  wools,  as 
do  China,  India,  and  neighbouring  countries. 
Recently  India  has  made  an  effort  to  improve  the 
native  breed  by  importing  merino  rams,  and  the 
reports  so  far  are  most  satisfactory. 

The  "Silesian  merino,"  produced  in  Germany, 
is  regarded  as  the  finest  wool  in  the  world,  but 
it  is  a  fast-vanishing  quantity.  During  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  the  stock  has  fallen  from 
about  thirty  millions  to  seven  millions,  and, 
although  within  recent  years  an  effort  has  been 
made  to  revive  the  industry,  it  is  generally  found 
that  it  is  cheaper  to  import  the  wool  from  Aus- 
tralia and  other  places  than  to  grow  it.  The 
Silesian  sheep  are  descendants  of  a  flock  presented 
by  Spain  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  in  1765,  and 
were  for  a  long  time  assiduously  cultivated.  At 
one  time,  for  instance,  the  universities  were 
charged  with  the  work  of  improving  the  breed, 
and  a  professorship  was  established  intimately 
to  study  the  question. 

Saxony,  where  the  merinos  were  first  introduced 
from  Spain,  was,  by  the  way,  one  of  the  chief 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  57 

sources  of  the  British  supply  until  the  rise  of 
Australia  to  the  position  of  a  great  wool-growing 
country.  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  home  growth  of  wool  for  manufactur- 
ing purposes  was  chiefly  supplemented  by  imports 
from  Spain  and  Germany,  but  since  that  time 
Australia  has  come  rapidly  to  the  front,  with  the 
result  that  even  Germany  herself  finds  it  more 
advantageous  to  deal  with  the  Antipodes.  Saxony 
and  Silesian  wools,  it  is  true,  are  still  used  in 
England,  but  only  in  small  quantities,  and  chiefly 
for  the  making  of  the  finer  doeskins  and  kersey- 
meres in  the  West  of  England. 

In  a  similar  way,  the  merino  sheep  were  intro- 
duced into  France  from  Spain,  and  the  French 
Government  quickly  took  advantage  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  found  the  famous  breed  of  Rambouillet, 
which  is  to-day  known  and  valued  all  over  the 
world.  Austria  also  produces  a  good  merino  wool, 
but  Spain  itself,  which  formerly  had  a  treasured 
monopoly  of  the  merino,  now  produces  a  very 
inferior  quality,  which  is  not  much  better  than 
rough  carpet  wool.  Much  of  the  wool  of  the 
sheep-growing  countries  in  the  Balkans  and  Near 
East  is  not  of  the  best  quality  owing  to  the  strong 
hairs  to  be  found  in  it,  but  it  is  quite  suitable 
for  the  production  of  the  carpets  for  which  that 
part  of  the  world  is  famous. 


58  WOOL 

Sheep  are  to  be  found  in  many  districts  on  the 
African  continent,  but  it  is  in  Cape  Colony,  the 
Orange  Free  State,  the  Transvaal,  and  Natal  that 
the  most  ambitious  attempts  at  wool-growing 
are  to  be  found.  There  are  now  over  30,000,000 
sheep  and  12,000,000  goats  in  the  South  African 
Union,  but  half  the  sheep  are  of  a  "bastard"  sort, 
and  almost  woolless.  The  merino  is  the  breed 
which  does  best  on  the  coarse  vegetation  of  the 
veldt,  and  in  the  Transvaal,  particularly,  much 
money  has  been  spent  during  the  last  few  years 
with  the  object  of  improving  that  breed.  All 
experts  agree  that  there  is  a  great  future  for  sheep 
in  South  Africa,  both  from  the  point  of  view  of 
mutton  and  wool. 

America,  North  and  South,  now  produces  a  vast 
quantity  of  wool  of  good  quality.  Canada  has  not 
hitherto  gone  in  extensively  for  sheep  farming — 
there  are  not  3,000,000  sheep  in  the  whole  Domin- 
ion although  there  are  projects  afoot  for  encourag- 
ing their  settlement  on  the  great  prairie  lands  in 
the  West — but  in  the  United  States  there  are 
over  50,000,000  sheep  and  lambs,  more  than  half 
of  which  are  of  pure  or  high-class  merino  breeds. 
South  America  has  proved  particularly  suitable 
for  sheep-raising,  and  buyers  in  England  are  en- 
thusiastic as  to  the  present  production  and  future 
possibilities  of  the  more  southerly  parts  of  the 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  59 

American  continent.  The  Argentine  Republic 
alone  has  nearly  70,000,000  sheep,  but  in  the  near 
future  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  numbers  will 
decrease,  owing  to  it  having  proved  more  profitable 
for  the  country  to  grow  wheat  and  breed  cattle  for 
the  already  enormous  meat  trade.  The  country, 
however,  is  well  adapted  to  sheep,  and  the  soil, 
which  is  very  rich,  is  better  suited  for  mutton  pur- 
poses than  for  wool.  It  is  a  curious  fact  in  connec- 
tion with  sheep-raising  that  within  certain  limits 
the  poorest  land  can  be  relied  upon  to  produce 
the  finest  quality  of  wool. 

In  the  Argentine  about  three-quarters  of  the 
stock  are  strong  cross  and  mutton  breeds,  the 
remainder  being  merinos  and  kindred  fine-woolled 
sheep.  Uruguay,  on  the  contrary,  is  warmer  and 
less  suited  to  agriculture,  with  the  result  that  fully 
80  per  cent,  of  the  26,000,000  sheep  to  be  found 
there  are  of  the  fine  merino  breed.  They  are 
principally  the  French  Rambouillets,  and  the  re- 
mainder are  good  cross-breds  produced  from  me- 
rino ewes  and  Lincoln  or  Romney  Marsh  rams. 
Another  South  American  wool  which  is  very 
popular  with  English  manufacturers  is  grown  on 
the  island  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  which  is  regarded 
as  one  of  the  best  sheep  countries  in  the  world. 
The  wool,  mostly  cross-bred  but  of  a  good,  strong 
quality,  is  known  to  the  trade  as  "Puntas  Arenas," 


60  WOOL 

the  name  of  the  port  from  which  it  is  shipped, 
and  it  is  in  great  favour  in  the  hosiery  and  other 
trades  where  a  full,  bulky  wool  is  an  advantage. 
Some  of  the  best  Cheviot  wools  come  from  the 
Falkland  Islands,  where  Cheviot  sheep  were  orig- 
inally introduced  by  the  early  Scottish  settlers. 

The  British  wools  are  too  various  to  set  out  in 
detail  here.  Cross-breeding  has  given  nearly  every 
part  of  the  country  a  class  of  its  own,  so  that  it  is 
possible  to  find  in  Great  Britain  almost  every 
length  and  quality  of  staple  from  the  Lincoln  to 
the  Southdown.  The  last-named  is  the  shortest 
and  finest  of  the  native  wools,  and  is  eminently 
suited  for  flannels  and  other  woollen  goods,  while 
the  Lincoln  and  Leicester  wools  (the  latter  re- 
garded as  the  choicest  long  wool  in  England)  are, 
on  account  of  their  lustrous  qualities,  greatly 
esteemed  in  the  worsted  trade  for  their  suitability 
for  making  up  into  the  finest  dress  cloths.  Be- 
tween the  wools  named  come  a  number  of  "demi- 
lustre"  wools,  such  as  the  Romney  Marsh,  Cots- 
wold,  Wensleydale,  Devon,  and  others,  while  the 
list  of  Down  wools  include  Shropshire,  Oxford, 
Suffolk,  and  many  of  the  South  of  England  wools. 

There  are  also  a  number  of  special  wools,  the 
best  known  among  them  being  the  Shetland  and 
Cheviot.  Shetland  wool,  as  is  generally  known, 
is  used  for  hosiery  and  knitted  goods,  while  the 


A   NOTED    PRIZE-WINNING    LEICESTER    RAM— AN    EXCELLFJNT 
LONG-WOOLLED    BREED 

(By  Permission  of  the   Well-Known  Breeder,  Mr.  E.  F.  Jordan, 
Driffield,  East   Yorks) 


A  GOOD  SPECIMEN  OF  THE  ROMNEY  MARSH  SHEEP 
(By  Courtesy  of  Mr.  J.  Egerton  Quested,  Cheriton,  Folkestone) 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  61 

Cheviot  wool  is  retained  in  Scotland  for  the  mak- 
ing of  tweeds.  So  eager  are  the  manufacturers  of 
Scotch  tweeds  to  secure  the  wool  of  the  Cheviot 
sheep  that  they  arrange  with  the  local  farmers 
beforehand  to  take  all  their  wool,  and  as  a  special 
inducement  often  agree  to  pay  a  penny  a  pound 
above  the  market  price.  The  result  is  that  sheep 
raising  is  especially  encouraged  in  the  Lowlands  of 
Scotland,  and  over  a  million,  chiefly  Cheviots,  are 
to  be  found  in  the  border  counties  alone.  There 
are,  indeed,  said  to  be  more  sheep  per  acre  in  the 
counties  of  Roxburgh  and  Selkirk  than  anywhere 
else  hi  the  world. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  watch  the  future  de- 
velopments of  wool-growing.  Already  the  air 
is  full  of  great  potentialities — changes  which  may 
in  the  next  decade  have  a  profound  effect  upon 
the  sources  and  quality  of  our  supplies.  Less  of 
the  finest  quality  merino  wool  is  being  produced 
in  Australia,  and  the  quantity  is  likely  still  further 
to  decrease  in  future.  The  reason  is  two-fold. 
The  growing  demand  for  frozen  mutton  is  en- 
couraging the  squatter  and  farmer  to  cross  their 
small  fine-fleeced  merinos  with  the  bigger,  long- 
woolled  English  breeds,  and  the  result  is  a  cross- 
bred wool  eminently  useful,  but  not  nearly  so 
fine  and  soft  as  that  from  the  pure  merino.  It  is, 
of  course,  a  matter  of  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence 


62  WOOL 

with  the  farmer,  and  the  growing  popularity  of 
cross-breeding  seems  to  indicate  that  the  heavier 
carcase  and  the  slightly  inferior  fleece  are  likely 
to  pay  better  than  the  higher-priced  first-quality 
fleece  minus  the  carcase. 

At  present  New  Zealand  is  the  country  doing 
most  in  the  way  of  cross-breeding,  and,  according 
to  the  experience  of  the  farmers  there,  the  most 
popular  ram  to  cross  with  the  merino  is  the  Rom- 
ney  Marsh.  By  this  means  the  dominion  is 
getting  a  big-bodied  sheep  and  a  quick-maturing 
lamb — an  animal,  of  course,  far  superior  to  the 
merino  for  the  special  purposes  for  which  it  is 
required.  Australia  is  crossing  with  the  Leicester, 
Romney  Marsh,  and  others,  the  result  being  that 
already  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  wool  from 
Australasia  is  cross-bred,  and  the  proportion  is 
always  increasing.  New  Zealand,  indeed,  will 
shortly  cease  to  be  a  merino-producing  country 
if  her  present  rate  of  conversion  is  maintained. 
Exactly  the  same  process  is  going  on  in  the  Argen- 
tine, where  three-quarters  of  the  flocks  are  now 
cross-bred. 

South  Africa  has  not  yet  done  much  in  the 
frozen-mutton  trade,  and  consequently  she  still 
retains  her  flocks  of  fine-woolled  sheep;  but  as 
she  is  much  nearer  the  English  markets  than 
Australia,  even  she  may  be  tempted  to  change 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  63 

the  breed  and  the  size  of  her  sheep  before  long. 
In  Australia,  says  Captain  Bean,  the  flocks  on 
the  coast  are  rapidly  changing  to  cross-bred,  and 
not  only  farmers,  but  hundreds  of  the  big  squatters 
in  accessible  districts  have  broken  away  from 
their  old  policy  of  breeding  merinos  purely  for 
the  excellence  of  their  wool.  This  they  are  not 
doing  without  weighty  protests  being  made, 
notable  authorities  like  Dalgety's  Review  being 
by  no  means  sure  that  in  the  long  run  the  policy 
will  prove  the  most  beneficial.  It  is  pointed  out 
that  while  it  takes  only  twelve  months  to  produce 
a  cross-bred  flock  out  of  the  pure  merinos,  it  will 
perhaps  take  twenty  years  to  breed  the  wool  fine 
again,  and  therefore  it  is  highly  important  that 
some,  at  least,  of  the  famous  old  merino  flocks 
should  be  kept  intact. 

Another  thing  which  is  said  to  be  working 
detrimentally  to  the  interests  of  fine  wool  is  the 
decision  of  the  Federal  and  State  Governments  in 
Australia  to  break  up  the  big  ranches  into  small 
farms  for  growing  wheat  and  other  cereals.  Young 
countries,  it  is  contended,  are  obliged  to  open  up 
lands  where  perhaps  there  are  now  kept  only  one 
or  two  sheep  to  the  acre,  but  in  breaking  up  these 
great  runs  the  wool  produced  is  hardly  likely  to 
be  so  uniformly  good.  It  is  argued  that  breeding 
can  never  be  so  even  in  small  flocks  as  in  large 


64  WOOL 

ones;  that  the  farmer's  few  bales  cannot  be  so 
rigidly  classed  as  the  big  clips  of  the  squatter,  and 
that  the  farmer  cannot  possibly  pay  the  money 
for  rams  to  improve  his  flock  that  the  bigger  men 
can.  On  more  than  one  occasion  as  much  as 
£1,500  has  been  paid  for  a  prize  ram,  and  obvi- 
ously such  prices  as  these  are  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  small  farmer. 

Still,  although  the  day  is  going  when  one  man 
can  control  60,000  square  miles  of  country  and 
turn  out  his  sheep  and  cattle  upon  a  holding 
amounting  to  40,000,000  acres,  there  will  be  for 
a  long  time  to  come  plenty  of  elbow-room  in  the 
interior  of  Australia,  South  Africa,  and  other 
young  countries,  especially  as  irrigation  has  now 
made  possible  lands  which  formerly  were  regarded 
as  hopeless  for  live  stock  of  any  kind. 

Sheep,  it  may  be  remarked  incidentally,  are 
excellent  pioneers  in  virgin  or  only  partly-settled 
countries.  They  always  improve  the  land  on 
which  they  graze.  What  was  a  barren  waste  with 
only  a  tuft  of  grass  here  and  there,  will  soon 
become  fit  for  cattle  and  mixed  farming  if  sheep 
are  turned  upon  it,  and,  this  being  the  case,  it  is 
clear  why  the  holdings  of  the  squatters  in  Aus- 
tralia are  coming  into  favour  as  places  upon  which 
to  settle  the  small  emigrant  farmer. 

In  a  chapter  in  which  an  attempt  is  made  to  put 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  65 

before  the  reader  the  enormous  dimensions  to 
which  the  industry  of  sheep-raising  has  grown 
throughout  the  world  a  few  figures  respecting  the 
wool  trade  generally  will  no  doubt  be  found  of 
interest.  The  report  of  the  first  census  of  produc- 
tion of  the  United  Kingdom  in  1907  scarcely 
covered  the  ground,  but  at  least  it  gave  some  idea 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  industries  with  which  it 
was  concerned.  It  showed,  for  instance,  that  of 
the  7,000,000  workers  returned  as  employed  in 
all  the  groups  of  industries  covered  by  the  census, 
no  fewer  than  1,250,000  were  employed  in  the 
textile  group,  and  nearly  2,000,000  of  those  en- 
gaged in  making  textile  machinery  and  apparel 
were  included.  Nearly  one-half  of  the  textile 
workers  are  occupied  in  the  cotton  trade.  Next 
in  importance  comes  the  woollen  group  of  trades, 
giving  employment  to  more  than  20  per  cent,  of 
the  total.  The  persons  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  wool,  worsted,  and  shoddy  in  the  United 
Kingdom  are  stated  in  the  Factory  Returns  to 
number  261,192,  and  the  gross  output  or  selling 
value  of  the  products  of  the  woollen  and  worsted 
industries  is  returned  at  £70,331,000.  Of  this 
sum  England  and  Wales  are  responsible  for 
£63,652,000,  Scotland  £6,072,000,  and  Ireland 
£607,000.  The  Board  of  Trade  estimates  that 
there  is  probably  over  £10,000,000  paid  in  wages 


66  WOOL 

in  the  British  woollen,  worsted,  carpet,  flock,  and 
shoddy  industries. 

It  is  well  to  remember  also  that  the  figures 
given  above  do  not  include  the  hosiery  industry, 
which  is  largely  concerned  with  wool,  and  has  a 
gross  output  of  £8,689,000.  The  flock  and  rag 
factories,  which  have  an  output  of  £852,200,  are 
also  not  included  in  the  estimate,  and,  again,  no 
account  is  taken  of  the  dyeing  and  finishing  in- 
dustries, which  on  the  wool  side  represent  in 
value  over  £2,500,000  and  employ  over  100,000 
people. 

Of  the  261,192  persons  given  as  employed  in  the 
wool  trades,  102,030  are  engaged  in  spinning  and 
weaving  woollen  and  116,534  in  spinning  and 
weaving  worsted,  although  there  are  actually 
more  woollen  than  worsted  factories  and  the 
spindles  and  looms  show  very  little  variation  in 
number.  In  the  worsted  branch,  it  is  worthy  of 
note,  there  has  been  an  enormous  increase  in 
spinning  and  doubling  machinery,  accompanied 
by  a  substantial  decline  in  the  number  of  power- 
looms.  The  speeding-up  of  looms  may  have  done 
something  towards  swallowing  up  the  increased 
output  of  the  spindles,  but  the  real  explanation  is 
no  doubt  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that,  whereas 
formerly  most  of  the  yarn  produced  was  woven 
into  cloth  in  British  factories,  a  large  part  of  it  has 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  67 

in  recent  years  been  exported  to  Germany  and 
other  Continental  countries. 

America  is  increasing  its  demands  year  by  year, 
and  there  have  actually  been  years  when  the 
consumption  of  wool  in  the  United  States  was 
higher  than  that  of  any  other  country.  This  was 
the  case  in  the  year  1909-10,  there  being  retained 
for  consumption  587,983,508  Ibs.  of  wool,  of  which 
263,928,000  Ibs.  were  imported,  the  balance  being 
provided  by  an  extraordinary  home  production. 
There  was  a  marked  falling  off  from  this  total  in 
the  following  year,  the  quantity  retained  then 
being  450,804,692  Ibs.  Against  these  figures  the 
quantity  used  for  manufacturing  purposes  in  the 
United  Kingdom  was  about  490,000,000  Ibs., 
in  France  460,000,000  Ibs.,  and  in  Germany 
380,000,000  Ibs. 

The  following  table  gives  a  fairly  accurate  idea 
of  the  average  quantity  of  wool  used  annually  for 
manufacturing  purposes  in  certain  principal  coun- 
tries:— 

Lbs. 

United  Kingdom  .  .  .  515,000,000 
United  States  .  .  .  505,000,000 

France 480,000,000 

Germany  ....  400,000,000 
Austria-Hungary  .  .  .  140,000,000 
Italy  .  .  .  60,000,000 


68  WOOL 

It  is  believed,  however,  that  the  United  States 
is  not  nearly  at  the  full  extent  of  her  production, 
for  in  addition  to  her  own  manufactures  she  is  a 
very  large  importer  of  woollen  fabrics. 

So  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned,  we  find 
that  no  less  than  872,000,000  Ibs.  of  wool,  mohair, 
shoddy,  &c.,  were  consumed  in  1913,  while  the 
consumption  of  raw  sheep's  and  lambs'  wool  alone 
was  590,000,000  Ibs.  These  figures  have  shown 
great  expansion  during  the-past  twenty  years,  the 
increase  in  the  sheep's  and  lambs'  wool  consumed 
being  over  30  per  cent.,  and  that  in  the  total  of  all 
wool,  mohair,  shoddy,  &c.,  over  40  per  cent.  The 
proportions  of  home  and  imported  supplies  of 
raw  sheep's  and  lambs'  wool  will  be  seen  from  the 
following  analysis  of  the  figures  for  1913: — 

Lbs. 
Net   imports   into   the   United 

Kingdom     ....     494,000,000 
Estimated    domestic   clip,    less 

exports  of  British  produce     .       96,000,000 


Total  consumption  .     590,000,000 

The  chief  sources  of  the  supply  of  imported  sheep's 
and  lambs'  wool  are  British,  the  Empire  contain- 
ing about  a  third  of  the  world's  sheep,  and  these 
of  the  very  highest  value. 
The  exports  of  the  woollen  trade  are  analysed 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  69 

under  three  headings — the  exports  of  tops,  the 
exports  of  yarns,  and  the  exports  of  manufac- 
tures. The  exports  of  tops  amounted  in  1912  to 
£3,500,000,  of  which  over  £1,000,000  went  to 
Germany.  The  total  exports  of  yarns  amounted 
to  £8,200,000  in  1912,  and  of  manufactures  to 
£26,100,000. 


CHAPTER  VI 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE 


MARK  TWAIN,  in  one  of  his  travel  books,  tells  a 
story  purporting  to  show  how  Cecil  Rhodes  made 
his  first  hit  in  life.  The  future  South  African 
magnate,  wandering  aimlessly  along  the  quayside 
at  Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  was  accosted  by  a 
fisherman,  who  wanted  assistance  in  landing  and 
dressing  a  shark.  Young  Rhodes  was  promised 
half  of  what  was  found  inside  the  shark,  but  con- 
tented himself  with  a  scrap  of  paper  he  discovered 
there.  On  the  paper  was  the  announcement  of 
the  outbreak  of  the  Franco-German  War,  and  the 
effect  it  was  likely  to  have  on  various  trades,  and 
notably  the  woollen.  The  shark,  it  was  surmised, 
had  picked  up  the  paper  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames  just  as  it  was  starting  for  southern  seas, 
and  had  beaten  by  days  the  ordinary  steamship 
service  to  Australia — a  circumstance  which  en- 
abled Cecil  Rhodes  to  raise  enough  money  to 
"corner"  the  whole  of  that  season's  clip  of  the 
Colony's  wool. 

The  story  was  told  to  illustrate  the  shark's 
70 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE      71 

natatory  powers,  but  it  might  very  well  have  stood 
to  show  how  great  were  the  difficulties  under 
which  the  early  industry  of  wool  laboured  at  the 
Antipodes  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago.  Then  the 
sheep  farmer  was  hardly  a  being  to  be  envied,  for 
not  only  had  he  to  contend,  alone  and  unequipped, 
with  drought  and  famine  and  pestilence,  but 
being  without  cable,  and  dependent  upon  slow- 
going  "ocean  tramps"  for  the  transport  of  his 
wool,  he  was  at  all  times  the  sport  of  circum- 
stances unknown  to  him,  and  at  the  mercy  of 
every  whim  of  the  home  dealer.  Now  he  is  able 
to  look  with  more  complacency  upon  the  world, 
knowing  that,  so  far  as  wool  is  concerned,  he  holds 
the  key  to  the  whole  industrial  situation. 

What  happened  before  the  squatter  became  the 
chief  factor  in  wool  is  set  out  in  the  earlier  chapters 
of  this  volume,  but,  fascinating  as  the  story  is,  it  is 
not  more  so  than  the  pastoral  romance  which  is 
woven  round  the  whole  history  of  Australia's 
national  and  industrial  life.  The  story  is  one  of 
deep  Imperial  interest. 

Sheep  of  one  kind  or  another  have,  as  we  know, 
been  bred  in  England  for  long  centuries,  but  it  is 
not  much  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  that 
Great  Britain  came  into  possession  of  the  particu- 
lar strain  which  was  eventually  to  make  one  of  her 
dominions  the  greatest  producer  of  wool  in  the 


n  WOOL 

world.  How  it  all  happened  is  told  in  an  old 
Australian  journal — the  New  South  Wales  Maga- 
zine. Spain,  it  is  interesting  to  remember,  was  the 
original  home  of  the  merino  sheep — a  hardy, 
frugal,  white-woolled  animal  which  could  live  on 
land  where  most  sheep  would  starve,  and  which 
had  been  patiently  developed  from  certain  native 
sheep  said  to  have  been  quite  black.  This  merino 
breed,  which  produces  the  softest  of  all  wool,  and 
also  the  finest  and  whitest,  seems  to  have  been 
greatly  coveted  by  the  stockkeepers  of  every 
other  country  in  the  world,  but  for  a  long  time 
the  Spanish  authorities  closely  protected  their 
valuable  asset,  and  would  only  consent  to  export 
the  fleeces.  How  well  they  succeeded  in  main- 
taining their  monopoly  can  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  while  they  allowed  none  of  these  sheep 
to  leave  their  shores,  they  were  selling  to  England 
alone  6,000,000  Ibs.  of  the  8,000,000  Ibs.  of  wool 
this  country  imported  from  abroad  in  the  opening 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Once  or  twice, 
as  a  rare  concession,  the  rigid  rule  made  by  the 
Spanish  was  relaxed,  and  a  foreign  king  or  Govern- 
ment was  presented  with  a  flock  of  merinos  in 
recognition  of  favours  past  or  to  come.  In  this 
way  George  III.  came  into  possession  of  some  of 
these  sheep  in  1787  and  again  in  1791,  but  other- 
wise a  strict  embargo  was  put  upon  their  export, 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE      73 

and  for  a  long  time  they  were  not  allowed  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  anyone  who  might  possibly 
become  a  competitor. 

It  was,  however,  a  woman's  ingenuity  and 
resource  which  finally  overcame  all  difficulties, 
and  broke  down  the  protective  wall  which  sur- 
rounded these  precious  wool-bearing  animals. 
According  to  the  story  in  the  old  magazine  men- 
tioned, the  wife  of  a  certain  Spanish  ambassador 
to  the  English  Court  was  given  a  pair  of  much- 
admired  creamy  Hanoverian  coach  horses  in  order 
to  put  her  under  an  obligation,  and  it  was  then 
suggested  that  some  merino  rams  would  be  an 
acceptable  present  in  return.  The  diplomacy 
having  succeeded,  the  great  lady  cast  about  for 
some  means  of  fulfilling  her  part  of  the  bargain, 
knowing  full  well  that  it  was  little  use  approaching 
the  Spanish  Government  on  the  subject.  The 
easy  manners  of  that  day  answered  her  purpose 
well.  Smuggling  was  in  its  heyday,  and  to  some 
of  these  "free  trading"  gentlemen  of  her  own 
country  she  applied,  with  the  intimation  that 
she  would  like  to  have  "selected"  a  few  good 
rams  from  various  well-known  flocks.  The  "selec- 
tion" was  duly  made,  and  the  sheep  were  eventu- 
ally brought  to  England. 

Whether  this  is  what  really  happened  we  do 
not  know,  but  it  has  to  be  remembered  that  the 


74  WOOL 

monopoly  had  to  some  extent  been  broken  down 
previously  through  the  medium  of  presents  made 
by  the  Spanish  Government  itself  between  the 
years  1768  and  1809.  The  Saxons,  Austrians, 
Dutch,  English,  and  Americans  all  benefited  in 
this  way.  The  Saxon  flock,  it  is  stated,  was  es- 
tablished at  Lohmen,  and  was  gradually  developed 
until  the  wool  produced  was  the  finest  ever  known. 
The  Austrians  placed  theirs  at  Hostitz,  the  French 
at  Rambouillet,  the  Americans  at  Vermont,  the 
Dutch  sent  some  of  theirs  to  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  and  George  III.  kept  his  on  his  farm  at 
Kew,  and  all  developed  the  sheep  in  different 
ways.  It  was  from  the  Dutch  and  English  con- 
tingents, the  least  important  flocks  originally, 
that  Australia  got  the  sheep  from  which  she  built 
up  the  greatest  and  most  famous  flocks  in  the 
world. 

It  was  a  young  officer — Captain  John  Mac- 
arthur,  of  the  102nd  Regiment,  stationed  at 
Sydney — who  had  the  credit  of  founding  the 
Australasian  flocks;  but  the  Commonwealth,  es- 
pecially, is  indebted  to  Macarthur  for  his  great 
foresight  and  enterprise.  What  the  introduction 
of  sheep  has  meant  to  the  great  lands  "down 
under"  can  readily  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  Australia  now  sends  to  England  alone  any- 
where up  to  320,000,000  Ibs.  of  wool  each  year, 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE      75 

and  the  big  islands  lying  1,200  miles  from  Aus- 
tralia, which  are  now  the  Dominion  of  New  Zea- 
land, but  which  a  little  over  a  hundred  years 
ago  had  not  a  white  man  nor  a  sheep  upon  them, 
sends  an  additional  cargo  of  between  180,000,000 
and  190,000,000  Ibs.,  valued  at  something  over 
£8,000,000.  Spain,  where  the  merino  came  from, 
has  long  since  ceased  to  send  any  at  all.  The 
Peninsular  War  started  the  downfall  of  the  old 
Spanish  trade,  and  a  preferential  tariff  put 
on  by  England  in  favour  of  her  own  colonies 
finished  it. 

Captain  Macarthur  went  to  Sydney  two  years 
after  the  Colony  was  founded,  and  seems  to  have 
been  convinced  from  the  start  that  the  country 
offered  great  possibilities  for  sheep-raising.  He 
started  modestly  enough.  Despite  the  great  diffi- 
culties of  that  day  in  obtaining  transport,  he 
managed  to  get  shipped  to  him  thirty  Bengal 
sheep  from  Calcutta,  but  the  undertaking  took 
him  a  matter  of  three  years.  And  when  the 
animals  arrived  they  could  not  be  considered  as 
very  great  prizes.  They  have  been  described  as 
"skinny,  long-legged,  razor-backed  animals,  with 
not  an  ounce  of  anything  approaching  wool  upon 
them,"  but  the  Captain  found  that  when  he 
crossed  them  with  one  or  two  Irish  sheep  he  ob- 
tained, the  progeny  were  covered  with  a  fleece 


76  WOOL 

which  was  "distinctly  less  like  hair  and  increas- 
ingly like  wool." 

This  gave  him  the  idea  that  if  he  could  only 
obtain  some  good  Spanish  sheep  he  might  eventu- 
ally cover  his  flock  with  a  fleece  of  some  value.  By 
a  lucky  chance  he  heard  that  the  widow  of  a 
certain  Colonel  Gordon,  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company,  had  decided  to  sell  a  flock  of  Spanish 
merinos  which  had  formerly  been  sent  to  the 
Cape  by  the  Dutch  Government,  and  he  at  once 
commissioned  the  captains  of  two  vessels,  sailing 
from  Sydney  to  the  Cape  for  stores,  to  buy  all 
the  fine-woolled  sheep  they  could  get  in  South 
Africa.  The  two  captains  are  said  to  have  bought 
twenty-six  sheep  at  £4  each,  and  when  they  ar- 
rived back  in  Sydney,  Macarthur  endeavoured 
to  buy  them  all,  offering  as  much  as  £15  each. 
He  is  said,  however,  to  have  managed  to  buy 
only  eight — three  rams  and  five  ewes — but  with 
these  and  his  razor-backed  Bengals  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  whole  of  Australia's  vast  flocks. 

To-day  the  great  source  of  Australia's  wealth  is 
her  pastoral  industry.  The  fine  wool  from  her 
merino  sheep  fetches  the  highest  prices  in  the 
world's  markets,  and  goes  away  by  millions  of  bales 
a  year.  Following  the  example  of  the  founder, 
the  Australian  pastoralist  of  to-day  is  a  scientific 
stock-breeder,  and  his  accomplishments  in  raising 


STUD   MERINO   RAMS   ON    A   NEW    SOUTH   WALES    FARM 
(Australian   Government  Photo) 


"TO   SEE   THE   MERINO   IS    TO   BE   CONVINCED   OF   ITS 
MARVELOUS    WOOL-PRODUCING   QUALITIES" 

(Australian    Government  Photo) 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE      77 

the  standard  of  merino  wool  have  astounded  the 
world.  The  average  fleece  at  the  time  Macarthur 
introduced  the  merinos  weighed  3J^  Ibs.  To-day 
the  wool,  hardly  to  be  rivalled  for  its  quality, 
shows  an  average  yield  from  each  sheep  of  over 


The  merino  as  it  appears  to-day  presents  a 
remarkable  picture.  "Feathered  to  the  foot," 
its  body  covered  with  folds  and  wrinkles  of  wool, 
and  its  head  almost  hidden  in  the  depths  of 
encircling  fleece,  the  animal  developed  from  the 
old  Spanish  breed  may  not  be  so  attractive  to  look 
upon  as  a  Leicester  or  a  Suffolk,  but  to  see  it  is 
to  be  convinced  of  its  marvellous  wool-producing 
qualities. 

The  great  proportion  of  Australian  sheep  — 
probably  85  per  cent.  —  are  of  various  types  of  the 
merino.  These  types  range  from  the  compara- 
tively small-framed,  dense-woolled,  fine  quality 
sheep  for  which  Tasmania  is  so  famous  to  the  big- 
framed,  stronger-woolled  merinos  for  which  South 
Australia  is  equally  well  known.  In  each  State, 
and  in  almost  every  important  sheep-breeding 
section  of  each  State,  there  are  flocks  noted  for 
the  production  of  some  specially  valuable  class 
of  wool  which  local  conditions  and  skilful  breed- 
ing have  evolved.  The  remaining  15  per  cent,  of 
Australian  sheep  are  cross-breeds.  With  the  devel- 


78  WOOL 

opment  of  the  export  trade  in  lamb  and  mutton 
more  attention  has  been  paid  to  sheep  of  all  the 
British  breeds. 

Probably  the  Lincoln  sheep  are  the  most  nu- 
merous of  those  introduced  for  crossing,  followed 
in  numerical  order  by  the  Leicester,  Shropshire, 
Southdown,  Border  Leicester,  and  Romney  Marsh. 
In  the  majority  of  cases  the  long-woolled  sheep 
are  crossed  with  merinos,  as  it  is  found  by  such 
means  that  not  only  can  a  useful  carcase  for 
export  be  obtained,  but  also  a  class  of  wool  which 
commands  ready  sale  at  remunerative  prices.  The 
Australian  climate  has,  in  some  respects,  changed 
the  character  of  the  Spanish  fleece.  The  wool 
has  become  softer  and  more  elastic,  and  while  it 
has  diminished  in  density  it  has  increased  in 
length,  and  the  weight  of  the  fleece  has  grown 
considerably.  The  quality  of  the  wool  may  be 
said  to  have  improved,  on  the  whole,  under  the 
beneficial  influence  of  the  climate. 

The  extent  of  Australian  territory  naturally 
adapted  to  the  production  of  merino  wool  may  be 
said  to  comprise  nearly  the  whole  of  Queensland 
and  New  South  Wales  west  of  the  great  Dividing 
Range,  with  the  exception  of  the  country  bordering 
the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria;  practically  the  whole 
of  Victoria,  with  the  exception  of  the  heavily- 
timbered  tracts  of  the  south-eastern  division,  and 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE      79 

the  rich  volcanic  soils  of  the  south-western  divi- 
sion; nearly  two-thirds  of  South  Australia;  and 
probably  the  greater  part  of  Western  Australia, 
with  the  exception  of  the  sub-tropical  fringe  of 
the  north  and  north-west  coast,  and  some  of  the 
country  of  the  eastern  section  of  the  State.  In 
the  Northern  Territory  there  are  also  extensive 
tracts  of  sheep  country.  From  this  vast  expanse 
it  is  necessary  to  deduct  in  each  State  fairly  ex- 
tensive areas  which  at  present  are  impracticable 
for  sheep  for  various  reasons,  but  it  is  probably 
quite  correct  to  state  that  there  are  about  two 
millions  of  square  miles  of  land  in  Australia 
capable  of  carrying  sheep  on  natural  pasturage 
in  normal  seasons. 

Some  portions  of  the  country  are,  of  course, 
capable  of  carrying  more  sheep  than  others,  and 
in  many  parts  of  it  sheep-rearing  is  likely  to  re- 
main a  precarious  undertaking  until  large  sums 
have  been  expended  on  improvements  and  water 
conservation.  In  many  districts  where,  prior  to 
the  discovery  of  the  existence  of  artesian  water, 
millions  of  sheep  perished  in  the  midst  of  abun- 
dance of  food,  there  are  now,  however,  ample 
supplies  of  water  flowing  from  artesian  bores. 
The  discovery  of  artesian  water  has,  in  fact, 
completely  changed  the  outlook  over  thousands 
of  square  miles  of  country  where  surface  water 


80  WOOL 

was  the  only  want,  and  has  opened  the  way  for 
the  pastoral  occupation  of  areas  as  yet  barely 
touched.  It  has  also  enabled  sheep  to  be  travelled 
where  formerly  such  a  thing  was  difficult  or 
impossible. 

As  far  back  as  1860  Australia  had  already  won 
a  recognised  place  among  the  world's  great  wool 
producers.  Since  then,  with  great  strides,  she 
has  made  her  way  to  the  very  front,  and  remains 
there,  despite  the  vicissitudes  to  which  an  industry 
of  such  enormous  scope  is  naturally  liable.  In 
1860  the  sheep  on  Australian  pastures  totalled 
20,135,286;  in  1870,41,593,612;  in  1880,62,186,702; 
in  1890,  97,881,221.  In  1902,  the  year  of  the 
great  dry  spell,  the  colossal  total  was  reduced  by 
nearly  one-half,  namely,  to  53,668,347.  Since  then 
a  great  and  practically  continuous  recovery  has 
taken  place,  until,  at  the  end  of  1913,  the  number 
of  sheep  in  the  Commonwealth  had  again  climbed 
up  to  85,049,697.  New  South  Wales  remains 
the  leading  wool-growing  State,  not  only  of  the 
Commonwealth,  but  of  the  world,  with  some- 
thing like  40,000,000  sheep.  Queensland  comes 
next,  though  at  a  long  interval,  with  nearly 
22,000,000. 

Put  shortly,  In  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
years  the  flocks  of  Australia  have  grown  from  a  few 
head  to  over  85,000,000,  by  far  the  greatest  num- 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE      81 

her  of  sheep  in  any  country;  the  weight  of  the 
fleece  has  been  more  than  doubled,  and  the  quality 
has  been  brought  to  such  a  pitch  that  it  is  difficult 
to  say  whether  further  improvement  is  possible. 

The  annual  value  of  Australian  wool  exported 
is  now  about  £31,000,000.  Formerly  the  bulk  of 
the  output  was  shipped  to  Great  Britain  for  dis- 
posal, but  now  buyers  from  various  countries  visit 
Australia  to  purchase  their  supplies  at  the  sales 
held  locally.  Still,  the  quantity  of  Australian 
wool,  for  all  that,  sent  direct  to  British  ports 
constitutes  nearly  45  per  cent,  of  the  total  im- 
portations of  wool  to  Great  Britain.  France 
comes  next  as  the  most  important  purchaser  of 
Australian  wools,  the  amount  exported  from  the 
Commonwealth  to  French  ports  reaching  nearly 
£6,000,000  worth  of  scoured  and  greasy  wool 
per  annum,  with  very  large  quantities  of  sheep- 
skins. Germany  ranks  third  in  the  scale  of  pur- 
chasers, with  an  annual  importation  of  Australian 
wool  of  the  value  of  over  £5,000,000,  while  the 
value  of  the  wool  exported  from  Australia  to 
Belgium  exceeds  two  and  a  quarter  millions 
sterling. 

New  Zealand,  which  has  grown  up  alongside 
Australia  as  a  great  sheep-producing  country,  has 
also  a  wonderful  record  of  progress.  The  country 
is  eminently  suited  for  sheep-breeding,  practically 


82  WOOL 

every  description  of  sheep  finding  a  favourable 
local  habitat.  In  the  hilly  and  down  country  of 
the  South  Island  the  merino  has  been  bred  for 
many  years,  and  was  the  original  sheep  depas- 
tured. In  fact,  the  merino  ewe  furnished  the 
foundation  of  the  cross-bred  stock  which  has  made 
Canterbury  mutton  famous  on  British  meat 
markets.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Canterbury 
meat  trade  the  English  Leicester  of  the  original 
type  was  the  favourite  ram  for  cross-breeding 
with  the  merino  ewe,  but  of  later  years  the  Lincoln 
has  been  largely  employed  for  that  purpose.  In 
the  North  Island  the  Romney  sheep,  which  suits 
the  rather  moist  climate  of  this  portion  of  the 
dominion,  has  become  the  most  popular  sheep, 
and  it  is  also  increasing  in  number  in  the  South 
Island.  The  Lincoln  and  Border  Leicester,  how- 
ever, are  also  greatly  favoured  in  both  islands, 
while  the  Southdown  is  displacing  other  breeds 
for  fat-lamb  production  throughout  the  dominion. 
The  Leicesters,  mainly  the  English  variety,  are 
still  the  most  popular  British  breed  in  the  south. 

The  total  of  sheep  in  the  dominion  in  1913  was 
24,191,810,  which  showed  an  increase  of  5,237,257 
between  1903  and  1913,  representing  a  rate  of 
increase  of  27.63  per  cent,  in  the  ten  years.  Of 
the  provincial  districts,  Wellington  had  most  sheep 
in  1913,  Otago  came  next,  and  Canterbury  oc- 


AUSTRALIA'S  PASTORAL  ROMANCE       83 

cupied  third  place.  The  average  size  of  the  flocks 
in  1913  was  1,124,  which  is  very  little  different 
from  the  average  twenty  years  ago. 

Wool,  although  showing  signs  of  decreasing 
quantity,  is  still  the  most  important  product  of 
New  Zealand.  The  annual  value  of  the  export  is 
about  a  third  of  the  value  of  the  total  exports  of 
the  dominion,  the  figures  for  1913  being:  Total 
exports  of  New  Zealand  produce,  £22,577,890; 
wool,  £8,057,620.  The  quantity  of  wool  exported 
during  the  same  year  was  186,533,036  Ibs.,  a 
decrease  of  1,828,754  Ibs.  on  the  quantity  exported 
in  the  previous  year. 

Thus,  it  will  be  seen  that,  while  there  is  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  sheep  raised,  there  is 
actually  a  falling  off  in  the  amount  of  wool  mark- 
eted, which  is,  of  course,  due  to  the  circumstance 
that  the  dominion  is  now  breeding  for  mutton  in 
preference  to  wool.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
cross-breds  and  other  long  wools  now  comprise 
93  per  cent,  of  the  New  Zealand  flocks,  the  merino 
being  less  suited  for  freezing.  During  the  year 
ended  March  31st,  1914,  4,019,831  sheep  and 
4,338,180  lambs  were  slaughtered  for  food  pur- 
poses, 2,557,639  carcases  of  sheep  and  3,854,348 
carcases  of  lamb  being  exported.  In  addition, 
it  is  estimated  that  4,500,000  sheep,  representing 
a  weight  of  270,000,000  Ibs.,  and  about  550,000 


84  WOOL 

lambs,  of  a  weight  of  20,000,000  Ibs.,  were  killed 
by  farmers  for  local  consumption,  the  average 
annual  consumption  per  head  of  population,  in- 
cluding Maoris,  being  over  100  Ibs.  New  Zea- 
land supplies  larger  quantities  of  frozen  mutton 
and  lamb  to  the  United  Kingdom  than  do  either 
Australia  or  South  America. 

The  number  of  sheep  in  the  several  States  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Australia  and  in  New  Zea- 
land for  the  year  1913  was  as  follows:  Queens- 
land, 21,786,600;  New  South  Wales,  39,842,518; 
Victoria,  12,113,682;  South  Australia,  5,140,166; 
Western  Australia,  4,418,402;  Tasmania,  1,745,356; 
New  Zealand,  24,191,810;  making  a  grand  total 
for  Australasia  of  109,238,534. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL 

THERE  is  about  wool  something  of  romance  in 
every  stage  through  which  it  passes,  and  this 
obtains  even  in  the  usually  prosaic  business  of 
buying  and  selling. 

Perhaps  in  this  instance  it  is  the  cosmopolitan 
character  of  the  transaction  which  appeals  to  one, 
or  it  is  the  wonderful  future  of  the  great  fleecy 
cargoes  which  are  brought  into  the  Thames  from 
sub-equatorial  lands  that  especially  touches  the 
imagination.  It  cannot  fail,  also,  to  be  a  matter 
of  pride  to  the  Englishman  to  reflect  that  for 
nearly  a  century  buyers  from  all  over  the  world 
have  come  to  this  country  for  their  wool,  and  that 
the  Metropolis  has  been  the  great  clearing-house  of 
the  industry.  Once  it  was  Bruges  that  set  the 
standard  for  the  commodity  of  wool;  later,  York 
became  the  commercial  centre  for  the  woolstapler; 
but  for  the  last  three  generations,  at  least,  or  ever 
since  Australia  began  to  be  the  great  producer  of 
wool,  London  has  been  the  natural  and  accepted 
meeting-place  for  all  who  trafficked  in  the  fibre. 

85 


86  WOOL 

From  being  quite  small  affairs  held  once  in  a  way 
in  a  tradesman's  shop,  the  London  sales  have 
become  international  in  character,  held  regu- 
larly six  times  a  year  at  the  commodious  Wool 
Exchange  hi  Coleman  Street.  Here  wool  is  sold 
from  nearly  all  the  most  important  wool-producing 
countries  of  the  world.  Wool  is  sent,  for  instance, 
from  New  South  Wales,  Tasmania,  Queensland, 
Victoria,  West  and  South  Australia,  and  New 
Zealand,  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  from  the 
Falklands  Islands,  the  Argentine,  from  Chili,  and 
from  far  Peru.  This  wool  is  all  packed  and  graded 
upon  the  same  lines,  and  the  largest  buyers  com- 
pete for  its  purchase,  because  on  the  London  Wool 
Market  they  have  the  best  opportunities  of  getting 
the  kind  of  wool  they  want. 

The  first  auction  of  wool  from  the  colonies  was 
held  on  August  17th,  1821,  when  329  bales  of  wool 
from  New  South  Wales,  consigned  by  Captain 
Macarthur,  the  pioneer  of  Australian  sheep- 
breeding,  were  offered  at  Garraway's  Coffee  House 
in  Change  Alley,  Cornhill.  One  lot  actually  real- 
ised the  extraordinary  price  of  105.  4d.  per  lb., 
and  was  sold  to  a  buyer  named  Hirst,  of  Leeds. 
With  this  wool  was  also  sold  wool  which  came 
from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  from  Spain,  and 
from  Italy.  It  is,  therefore,  nearly  a  century 
since  the  first  ship,  which  had  taken  out  its  boat- 


THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL  87 

load  of  exiles  to  Australia,  returned  laden  with  a 
pioneer  cargo  of  wool.  Since  then  a  whole  race 
of  sheep  farmers  and  wool  merchants  have  sprung 
up,  who  have  transformed  the  conditions  of  in- 
dustry by  their  determination  and  enterprise, 
creating  a  trade  of  world  importance  and  world 
renown. 

The  London  wool  sales,  which  were  first  re- 
moved to  Moorgate  Street  Buildings,  and  have 
for  the  last  forty  years  been  held  at  the  present 
saleroom  in  Coleman  Street,  have  now  grown  to 
such  an  extent  that  there  are  six  series  of  sales 
throughout  the  year,  each  lasting  about  fifteen 
or  sixteen  days,  and  on  the  average  12,000  bales 
of  wool  are  sold  each  day.  The  wool  for  sale  in 
London  arrives  on  consignment  to  various  mer- 
chant houses,  mortgage  companies  and  banks, 
and  is  distributed  among  the  firms  of  selling 
brokers  for  realisation  on  behalf  of  the  consignors. 
The  buyers  view  the  wools  at  the  docks  and  ware- 
houses on  the  mornings  of  the  sales,  which  take 
place  at  4  o'clock  every  afternoon  during  the 
series,  except  Saturday,  when  the  lots  are  put  up 
for  auction  an  hour  earlier. 

The  way  the  London  sales  are  conducted  would 

'surprise  the  uninitiated,  who  may,  perhaps,  only 

know  the  wool  salesman  as  a  mild-mannered  family 

man.    The  eagerness  to  secure  some  of  the  "lots" 


88  WOOL 

on  the  Exchange  leads  to  remarkable  scenes,  and 
the  abiding  wonder  is  that  the  auctioneer  is  able 
to  give  any  satisfaction  whatever.  When  the  bid- 
ding commences  these  otherwise  staid  gentle- 
men become  as  excited  as  schoolboys  at  a  football 
match.  No  sooner  has  the  lot  been  put  up  than  a 
wild  assault  is  made  upon  the  eye  and  ear  of  the 
auctioneer,  whose  rostrum  is  situated  at  the  foot 
of  the  tiers  of  seats  occupied  by  the  salesmen,  and 
in  full  view  of  everyone  present.  The  saleroom 
somewhat  resembles  the  lecture  theatre  of  a  scho- 
lastic or  medical  institution  in  the  arrangement 
of  seats,  being  totally  different  from  the  cotton 
and  other  exchanges  where  dealers  meet  on  the 
floor  of  the  house  and  transact  their  business 
standing.  Each  wool  salesman  has  his  own  par- 
ticular seat,  and  members,  to  the  number  of  sev- 
eral hundreds,  sit  round  in  crescent  form  with 
the  auctioneer  enthroned  in  the  front  centre. 

Captain  Bean  gives  an  amusing  sketch  of  the 
scene  in  a  wool  saleroom  in  Australia,  and  it  is 
typical  of  what  may  be  seen  in  England.  "The 
sales-room  in  the  Sydney  Exchange,"  he  says, 
"is  not  quite  so  large,  and  the  crowd  does  not 
amount  to  300  or  more,  as  in  London.  But  the 
excitement  from  the  moment  the  bidding  starts  is 
a  spectacle  really  worth  seeing.  It  is  sometimes 
known  locally  as  the  dog-fight.  Half-a-dozen 


THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL  89 

foreigners  start  suddenly  to  their  feet  gesticulating 
like  lunatics.  An  innocent  onlooker  would  imagine 
that  an  outrage  had  just  been  committed  in  the 
French  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  that  he  was 
watching  the  arrest  of  the  criminal.  All  the  time 
a  huge  gaunt  yankee  in  an  upper  row  will  be 
bawling  some  monosyllable  interjection  with  the 
regulation  of  a  foghorn.  Sometimes  buyers  have 
actually  climbed  down  over  the  shoulders  of 
buyers  in  front  until  they  were  almost  leaning 
against  the  auctioneer's  desk,  shouting  their  bids 
straight  into  his  face.  Then  the  auctioneer  makes 
a  nod,  the  whole  din  subsides,  and  you  learn  that 
the  lot  has  been  knocked  down  to  a  quiet,  spec- 
tacled Japanese  gentleman  in  the  back  row  who 
said  *  three,'  which  means  three  farthings,  and 
put  an  end  to  the  pandemonium.  In  the  matter 
of  dog-fights,"  he  adds,  "there  is  little  to  choose 
between  the  Sydney  and  London  wool  sales." 

At  one  time  the  representatives  of  practically 
every  country  on  the  globe  came  to  London  for 
wool,  but  of  recent  years  there  has  been  a  tendency 
to  develop  more  and  more  the  wool  sales  in  Aus- 
tralasia, and  for  some  time  the  Germans,  French, 
and  Americans  have  had  their  own  ships  running 
direct  to  the  Antipodes,  and  have  chosen  to  buy 
most  of  their  wool  either  in  Australia  or  New 
Zealand.  Many  of  the  big  Australian  squatters 


90  WOOL 

still  prefer  to  market  their  wool  in  London,  but 
the  farmers  and  smaller  men  obtain  their  money 
much  more  quickly  by  selling  in  Australia.  Owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  large  runs  are  being  yearly 
more  cut  up  by  the  Government  and  the  smaller 
men  are  increasing,  the  Australian  sales  are  be- 
coming more  and  more  popular;  indeed,  the 
markets  held  at  Sydney,  Melbourne,  Geelong, 
Adelaide,  Fremantle,  Brisbane,  and  in  Tasmania 
and  New  Zealand  now  deal  with  over  three- 
quarters  of  the  Australasian  wool,  Sydney  alone 
having  in  recent  years  almost  equalled  London 
in  the  quantities  of  wool  sold.  London  con- 
tinues to  sell  a  considerable  amount  of  Cape, 
Falkland  Islands,  and  other  wool,  but  many 
European  firms  are  now  regularly  sending  their 
own  representatives  to  Australia  direct,  believing 
that  they  thus  not  only  reap  financial  advantage, 
but  thereby  obtain  the  pick  of  the  clips.  The 
biggest  buyers  at  the  Australian  sales  of  late 
have  been  the  Germans,  their  purchases  in  1912 
being  420,788  bales  against  Britain's  392,519. 
The  cream  of  the  Australian  wool  nowadays, 
however,  goes  to  America,  although  Japan  has 
recently  purchased  some  of  the  highest-priced 
wools  from  Sydney. 

There  are  also  wool  sales  in  South  Africa  at  Port 
Elizabeth,  East  London,  Mossel  Bay,  Durban, 


THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL  91 

and  at  smaller  inland  centres,  but  the  bulk  of 
Cape  wool  is  sold  privately  to  large  merchants  in 
South  Africa.  There  are  sales  at  Antwerp  con- 
sisting mainly  of  River  Plate  wools,  and  there  is 
usually  a  sale  in  Bremen  once  a  year  for  Australian 
wools  bought  in  the  Colony  for  re-sale  in  that 
city.  Some  raw  wool  is  also  sold  at  Havre,  and 
there  are  also  sales  of  partly  manufactured  wool 
at  other  places  in  France;  but  the  London  wool 
sales,  despite  some  tendency  to  diminish  in  im- 
portance, still  furnish  the  standard  prices  all  over 
the  world. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  England,  holding  as  it 
does  a  place  so  eminent  in  the  world  of  manufac- 
ture, should,  until  recently  at  all  events,  have  paid 
practically  no  attention  to  those  details  of  wool 
production  which  have  assuredly  given  Australia 
the  lead  in  the  world's  markets.  England,  as  we 
have  shown,  was  famous  as  a  wool-growing  coun- 
try centuries  before  many  of  its  competitors  were 
heard  of,  but  latterly  there  has  been  a  tendency 
to  fall  away  from  the  best  traditions  and  allow 
younger  countries  to  outstrip  her  in  the  race. 

In  its  excellent  review  of  the  wool  trade  at  the 
close  of  1914,  the  Bradford  Observer  said:  "Our 
estimate  of  the  English  clip  shows  a  reduction  as 
compared  with  last  year  of  3,922,000  Ibs.,  equiva- 
lent to  16,300  packs,  or  (say)  11,900  colonial  bales. 


92  WOOL 

Since  1909  there  has  been  a  steady  decline  in  the 
number  of  sheep  kept  in  this  country,  and  while  it 
is  too  early  yet  to  be  alarmed  about  the  English 
wool  production,  the  downward  trend  of  the  figures 
for  the  past  few  years  is  something  to  be  noted,  and 
it  would  be  interesting  to  inquire  to  what  extent 
it  is  due  to  the  growth  of  the  trade  in  fat  lambs. 
Exports  of  English  wool  this  year  have  been  more 
than  half  as  large  again  as  those  of  last  year,  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  but  for  the  war  they 
would  have  exceeded  the  big  total  of  1912.  The 
United  States  have  taken  nearly  three  times  as 
much  as  last  year;  Russia,  France,  and  Holland 
have  all  bought  liberally,  and  Germany,  whose 
account  was  closed  at  the  end  of  July,  was  the  only 
country  whose  takings  at  that  time  did  not  come 
up  to  last  year's  figures." 

It  is  perhaps  something  in  the  way  of  explana- 
tion of  the  growth  in  the  trade  in  fat  lambs  that 
the  home  sheep-breeder  has  been  much  discouraged 
by  the  poor  prices  he  has  made  for  his  wool;  but 
be  that  as  it  may,  he  has  largely  overlooked  the 
fact  that  he  is  himself  to  blame  for  the  falling 
off  in  his  profits  on  fleeces.  Had  he  studied  closely 
the  history  of  the  trade  in  Australia  and  some  other 
of  the  younger  sheep-rearing  countries,  he  would 
have  discovered  that  these  far-distant  places  had 
won  their  positions  in  the  markets  of  the  world  as 


THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL  93 

much  by  scientific  methods  as  by  natural  advan- 
tages; for,  after  all,  it  has  to  be  remembered  that 
against  certain  natural  advantages  which  are  pos- 
sessed by  some  of  our  colonies  must  be  placed 
the  difficulty  and  expense  of  transporting  wool 
from  far-away  inland  stations,  and  also  of  carrying 
the  wool  half-way  round  the  world  before  the 
principal  market  can  be  reached.  The  English 
wool-grower  has  not  only  his  market,  but  his 
manufacturer  at  his  own  door,  and,  with  such 
excellent  sheep  country  as  he  has  at  his  disposal, 
there  must  be  something  radically  wrong  if  he 
cannot  "keep  up  his  end"  with  the  keenest  com- 
petition from  overseas. 

It  is  curious  that  although  the  United  Kingdom 
in  1912  had  29,000,000  sheep,  or  a  larger  number 
than  New  Zealand,  none  of  the  British  wool  had 
up  to  the  end  of  that  year  been  sold  on  the  London 
Wool  Exchange.  The  clip,  assuming  an  average 
of  about  6  Ibs.  of  wool  per  sheep,  amounts  in 
round  figures  to  about  180,000,000  Ibs.  of  wool, 
but  the  whole  of  this  is  disposed  of  either  at  local 
markets  or  by  private  treaty.  The  bulk  of  the 
English  wool  is  of  the  long-stapled  variety,  and 
its  sale  is  really  an  important  branch  of  trade. 
Representatives  of  the  West  Riding  trade,  and 
country  wool-dealers,  either  purchase  the  wool 
from  the  farmers  or  the  wool  comes  to  market 


04  WOOL 

at  fairs  such  as  those  held  at  Leicester  and  Lincoln. 
There  are  regular  sales  of  Irish  wool  in  Dublin, 
and  of  Scottish  wools  in  Edinburgh,  or  Leith,  or 
Glasgow.  Complaint  after  complaint  has  been 
made  as  to  the  manner  in  which  British  wools 
are  shorn,  classed,  and  baled,  the  methods  of 
carrying  out  these  operations,  it  is  stated,  being 
of  the  most  primitive  description.  It  is  surprising 
that  whilst  Australian  wools  are  prepared  for 
market  and  sold  by  auction  in  bulk  either  in 
Australia  or  in  London  by  methods  which  give 
general  satisfaction,  British  wools  were  until  quite 
recently  still  marketed  in  a  manner  more  suited 
to  an  earlier  generation  than  to  the  present  day. 

A  comparison  between  the  prices  obtained  for 
English  wool,  when  marketed  on  the  usual  lines, 
and  the  prices  obtained  for  colonial  wool  of  a  sim- 
ilar class  on  the  London  wool  market,  leads  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  more  highly  organised 
methods  adopted  by  the  colonials  in  respect  to 
classifying  and  packing  insure  a  better  monetary 
return  to  the  growers.  Enquiries  made  among 
wool-buyers  in  England  and  Wales  confirm  the 
opinion  that  if  an  improved  system  of  classing 
and  marketing  were  adopted  by  the  home  sheep 
farmers,  it  might  reasonably  be  expected  that 
better  prices  would  also  obtain  for  the  home- 
grown product. 


THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL  95 

Some  years  ago  an  organisation  was  established 
in  England  which  seems  likely  before  long  to  put 
the  British  sheep-rearer  on  the  direct  road  to 
success.  The  Agricultural  Organisation  Society, 
amongst  other  things,  is  now  promoting  co- 
operative wool  societies  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  these  have  for  their  aim  the  adop- 
tion of  the  main  features  of  the  colonial  system, 
namely,  the  classification  of  the  wool  and  its 
subsequent  marketing  in  large  lots  under  brands 
constituting  guarantees  of  quality. 

It  is  the  practice  in  the  colonies  at  shearing  to 
divide  the  inferior  portions  of  the  fleece  from  the 
main  fleece  by  separating  the  belly  wool  and  skirt- 
ing off  the  coarse  woolled  britch,  and  the  resulting 
fleeces,  pieces,  bellies,  ahd  locks  (the  sweepings  of 
the  shearing  board)  have  a  marketable  value,  but 
care  is  taken  to  market  them  separately.  The 
fleeces,  in  addition  to  the  usual  division  of  hogs 
and  ewes,  washed  and  unwashed,  are  still  further 
classed  according  to  quality,  and  each  of  the 
classes,  four  in  number,  is  packed  separately  and 
offered  for  sale  in  large  lots  under  a  brand  forming 
a  guarantee  of  even  quality  and  honest  packing. 

Buyers  claim  that  this  system  of  classification 
enables  them  to  offer  the  fullest  price,  as  no  allow- 
ance has  to  be  made  for  unevenness  of  quality  or 
faulty  packing.  The  huge  colonial  sheep  runs  with 


96  WOOL 

their  thousands  of  sheep  undoubtedly  assist  organ- 
ised schemes  for  the  sale  of  wool  in  large  quanti- 
ties of  even  quality,  but  the  English  farmers, 
by  adopting  co-operation  and  more  systematic 
methods  of  classification,  hope  to  be  able  to  place 
themselves  in  at  least  an  equal  position  to  the 
colonial  competitor  who  has  had  so  far  to  send  his 
wool  to  the  London  market. 

Mr.  Digby  B.  Grist,  in  an  excellent  paper  on 
wool  classing  read  at  the  Nottingham  Confer- 
ence of  the  National  Sheep-Breeders'  Association 
in  1915,  to  which  I  am  indebted  for  many  of  the 
facts  appertaining  to  this  subject,  stated  that  in 
1913,  as  a  result  of  the  propagandist  work  of  the 
Agricultural  Organisation  Society,  sheep  farmers 
in  three  districts,  namely,  in  Carnarvonshire  and 
in  the  Brandsby  and  Malton  districts  of  York- 
shire, decided  to  deal  with  their  clips  on  the  lines 
advocated.  In  Yorkshire,  the  work  was  under- 
taken by  the  Brandsby  Agricultural  Trading  As- 
sociation, which  sold  7,000  fleeces  at  the  London 
wool  market.  In  Carnarvonshire,  a  special  wool 
society  was  formed  and  forty-four  members  sold 
10,000  fleeces  through  its  instrumentality.  In 
both  cases  the  result  of  the  experiment  was  suffi- 
ciently satisfactory  to  induce  those  who  took  part 
in  it  to  undertake  it  on  a  larger  scale  with  the 
1914  clip.  The  first  wool  to  be  sold  in  this  new 


THE  MARKETING  OF  WOOL  97 

way  in  1914  was  93,071  Ibs.,  sent  up  from  York- 
shire for  sale  in  London  by  the  Brandsby  Agri- 
cultural Trading  Association.  The  wool  realised 
£4,521  7s.  %d.,  a  result  which  pleased  the  senders, 
who  believe  that  the  lower  and  medium  grades 
realised  quite  as  much,  if  not  more,  and  the 
higher  grades  considerably  more,  than  local  prices. 
The  London  papers  reported  favourably  on  the 
get-up  and  sale  of  the  wool.  Some  of  it  went 
to  France,  Germany,  and  America,  and  some  of 
it  was  bought  by  Yorkshire  manufacturers  at 
a  higher  price  per  pound  than  that  given  by  the 
dealers  who,  at  the  same  date,  were  purchasing 
wool  from  the  farmers  in  Yorkshire.  The  actual 
expenses  of  the  Brandsby  scheme  in  1914  (exclu- 
sive of  management)  amounted  to  £187  Ss.  lie?., 
or  approximately  a  half -penny  a  pound.  The 
farmers,  however,  charged  themselves  an  eighth 
of  a  penny  more  per  pound,  and  this  left  a  balance 
sufficient  to  cover  the  expenses  of  management 
and  to  allow  a  small  profit  to  the  society. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that,  although  the  experi- 
ments in  wool  organisation  have  only  been  carried 
on  over  a  comparatively  brief  period,  they  have 
been  sufficient  to  establish  the  fact  that  the  sheep- 
breeder  may  expect  to  market  his  wool  upon  the 
most  favourable  terms  when  he  adopts  the  methods 
which  have  proved  so  advantageous  in  the  case  of 


98  WOOL 

his  competitors  who  send  their  produce  to  be  sold 
in  London,  the  world's  great  market  for  wool. 
There  are,  too,  a  number  of  other  advantages 
which  have  been  found  to  have  resulted  from 
this  organisation  among  British  sheep-breeders, 
and  in  future,  through  the  encouraging  results 
already  attained,  there  will  be  a  much  larger 
quantity  of  English  fleeces  placed  on  the  London 
market  in  saleable  form.  Three  times  as  many 
fleeces  were  offered  in  1915  as  in  1914,  which  is 
in  itself  a  proof  of  the  benefit  of  the  system  to 
English  flockmasters. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SHEARING  AND   SORTING 

IN  a  book  of  the  present  dimensions  one  cannot 
do  more  than  barely  outline  the  processes  through 
which  wool  has  to  go  from  the  sheep's  back  to  the 
moment  it  is  ready  to  be  placed  on  the  counter  in 
manufactured  form.  These  processes  are  bewilder- 
ing in  number  to  the  uninitiated,  as  will  be  seen 
from  the  fact  that  the  finishing  work  alone — which 
only  begins  after  the  cloth  comes  from  the  hands 
of  the  weaver — involves  between  twenty  and 
twenty-five  different  handlings,  according  to  the 
kind  of  finish  that  is  required.  A  piece  of  fine 
cloth  such  as  is  used  for  a  lady's  dress  requires, 
after  spinning  and  weaving,  such  operations  as 
perching,  mending,  soaping,  milling,  scouring, 
hydro-extracting,  crabbing,  tentering,  brush-dew- 
ing, double-brushing,  steaming,  raising,  cutting, 
double-brushing,  second  mending,  dry-steaming, 
blowing  and  exhausting,  cuttling  and  measuring, 
pressing,  steaming-off  and  cold-pressing.  And 
just  as  there  are  a  large  number  of  processes  at 
the  one  end  there  are  a  large  number  at  the  other, 

99 


100  WOOL 

the  preparatory  stages  being  very  many  and 
complicated. 

Nowadays,  owing  to  its  vastness  and  the  neces- 
sity of  obtaining  the  speediest  and  most  satisfac- 
tory result,  the  trade,  and  the  worsted  trade  par- 
ticularly, has  become  highly  specialised,  this  fact 
no  doubt  accounting  in  no  small  degree  for  the 
supremacy  which  has  been  attained  by  the  British 
industry.  It  is  possible,  of  course,  for  one  concern 
to  undertake  the  twenty-fold  processes  required 
to  turn  out  a  piece  of  fine  cloth,  but  in  practice  it  is 
evidently  much  more  profitable  for  a  firm  to  con- 
centrate on  combing  or  spinning  or  weaving,  or 
dyeing  or  finishing;  or,  at  all  events,  on  a  few  of 
the  processes  rather  than  on  the  whole.  On  the 
woollen  side,  it  is  quite  common  for  large  firms  to 
be  self-contained.  Many  concerns  not  only  card, 
spin,  and  weave  then*  own  materials,  but  also  dye 
and  finish  them  as  well. 

The  wool,  either  "washed"  or  "in  the  grease," 
has  to  go  through  several  preparatory  stages  be- 
fore it  is  ready  for  the  actual  combing  or  carding, 
and  then  after  receiving  it  in  the  shape  of  a  coil  of 
fleecy  ropes,  called  tops,  the  spinner  has  to  put  it 
through  two  or  three  processes  before  handing  it 
forward  "on  the  bobbin"  in  the  shape  of  thread 
to  the  warper  and  weaver.  Even  then  it  is  not 
more  than  half  dealt  with,  for,  owing  to  the 


SHEARING  AND  SORTING  101 

skill  and  ingenuity  now  exercised  in  dyeing  and 
finishing — many  of  the  methods  employed  being 
strictly  guarded  trade  secrets— the  more  exacting 
and  important  work  in  woollen  and  worsted  cloth 
manufacture  often  comes  in  subsequent  to  the 
weaving  stage. 

One  has  to  go  far  afield  to  see  the  first  act  in 
this  interesting  industrial  drama.  In  England,  it 
may  be  that  the  preliminary  work  is  taking  place 
in  a  shed  attached  to  a  lonely  moorland  farm, 
where  the  perspiring  farmer-shepherd  is  to  be  seen 
wrestling  with  a  lusty  sheep,  while  he  endeavours 
with  a  pair  of  antiquated  shears  to  divest  the 
animal  of  its  valuable  shaggy  coat.  Indeed,  in 
some  parts  of  the  world  the  start  may  be  on  even 
more  primitive  lines  than  these,  for  in  many  out- 
landish places  they  do  not  even  take  the  trouble 
to  use  shears  at  all,  but  simply  pull  the  wool  from 
the  sheep's  back  sans  ceremony.  Sheep  naturally 
divest  themselves  of  their  wool  when  the  fleece 
becomes  a  burden  in  hot  weather  and  the  new 
wool  begins  to  grow,  but  there  would  obviously 
be  much  waste  in  waiting  for  this  to  happen,  as 
the  wool  would  be  rubbed  off  the  back  here  and 
there  in  the  pastures  and  much  would  not  be  re- 
covered. It  is  recorded  that  the  custom  of  pulling 
the  wool  from  sheep's  backs  survived  in  the  north 
of  Scotland  until  a  comparatively  recent  date, 


102  WOOL 

but  owing  to  the  fact  that  sheep  were  not  always 
ready  to  shed  their  coats  at  the  same  time,  much 
cruelty  was  done  to  some  of  the  animals,  the 
tearing  process  often  leaving  their  skins  blood 
raw. 

As  the  manufacturing  industry  became  better 
organised,  it  began  to  be  seen  that  the  proper 
shearing  of  flocks  would  be  much  more  advan- 
tageous than  the  haphazard  system  of  pulling  the 
wool.  Consequently  the  barbarous  methods  of 
early  days  were  discarded,  and  the  wool  was 
gathered  regularly  and  systematically  for  the 
market.  Later,  when  sheep  began  to  be  raised  by 
the  million  instead  of  the  score,  and  great  tracts 
of  territory  were  set  apart  for  wool  growing  on 
scientific  and  business  lines,  it  became  necessary 
to  devise  such  means  of  harvesting  the  yield  as 
were  more  in  keeping  with  the  insistent  demands 
of  the  times.  On  the  great  ranches  of  Australia, 
and  elsewhere,  it  was  manifestly  impossible  to 
cope  with  the  enormous  numbers  of  sheep  on  the 
old  hand-shearing  lines,  and  now  the  work,  instead 
of  being  done,  as  formerly,  by  any  odd  lad  about 
the  farm,  has  become  highly  specialised  and  is  a 
well-regulated  trade  run  by  experts. 

These  professional  shearers  in  Australia  are 
said  to  number  something  like  30,000;  they  are 
men  who  perambulate  a  great  part  of  the  conti- 


SHEARING  AND  SORTING  103 

nent  in  the  course  of  the  season,  and  often — at 
least  many  of  their  number — make  journeys  to 
Tasmania  and  New  Zealand  as  well  to  give  a  hand 
at  the  shearing.  While  an  English  farm  hand, 
using  hand  shears,  will  have  done  a  good  day's 
work  in  clipping  thirty  sheep,  these  men,  with  the 
aid  of  steam  or  electricity,  will  easily  do  a  hun- 
dred. One  man,  indeed,  has  been  known  to  shear 
327  animals  in  the  course  of  a  nine  hours'  day. 

The  mechanical  shearer,  it  may  be  explained, 
generally  consists  of  a  cutting  wheel  geared  to  the 
shaft  of  a  small  steam  turbine.  A  comb  moves  in 
front  of  the  cutter,  effectually  protecting  the 
animal  from  harm.  The  shearing  apparatus, 
made  of  brass  and  in  shape  similar  to  a  small 
trowel,  is  held  in  the  hand  and  guided  over  the 
body  of  the  sheep  just  as  is  the  ordinary  wool 
shears.  The  shearing  machine  not  only  works 
with  great  expedition,  but  with  perfect  safety  to 
the  sheep. 

Australia  has  brought  the  business  of  shearing, 
like  that  of  breeding  and  growing  wool  generally, 
to  a  great  state  of  perfection.  There  are  single 
depots  in  Queensland  and  New  South  Wales  where 
an  many  as  4,000  sheep  are  sheared  in  a  day, 
machinery  having  now  taken  the  place  of  hand 
work,  and  the  shearers  being  remarkably  expert. 
A  man's  daily  output  can  be  judged  from  the  fact 


104  WOOL 

that  the  officially-fixed  shearing  rate  is  24s.  per 
100,  and  that  men  who  know  their  business  can 
earn  from  80s.  to  £2  a  day.  The  shearers,  who 
move  on  from  one  shearing  shed  to  another,  only 
work  for  a  few  months  in  every  year.  Many 
possess  farms  of  their  own,  which  they  are  enabled 
to  develop  by  the  substantial  cheques  earned 
during  the  short  but  busy  season. 

The  scene  at  shearing  time  on  a  great  Australian 
ranch  is  a  remarkable  one.  The  "station"  is 
worked  with  machine-like  regularity,  and  although 
the  pace  is  a  fast  one,  there  is  no  confusion,  as 
every  man  knows  his  own  special  work  and  the 
whole  business  is  organised  to  the  last  detail. 
What  one  sees  outside  the  shearing  sheds  is  only 
an  index  of  what  is  going  on  inside,,  and  the  whole 
makes  up  one  of  the  busiest  hives  of  industry 
imaginable.  Musterers,  as  they  are  called,  are 
constantly  arriving  with  sheep  for  the  shears,  or 
driving  those  already  shorn  to  their  paddocks. 
In  the  woolshed  the  heavy  thrum  of  the  machines 
driving  the  shears  goes  on  from  daylight  to  dark, 
with  short  intervals  for  dinner  and  refreshments. 
Long  lines  of  men  stoop  busily  over  their  work, 
each  man  pausing  only  to  let  a  shorn  sheep  go  into 
the  pen  in  front,  and  for  another  kicking  animal 
to  be  carried  from  the  pen  behind  him. 

As  the  fleeces  fall  from  the  sheep   they  are 


SHEARING  AND  SORTING  105 

quickly  picked  up,  carried  away,  and  thrown  out 
on  tables.  The  wool-rollers  then  skirt  and  roll  up 
each  fleece,  placing  it  on  the  sorter's  table  near  at 
hand.  This  expert  immediately  classifies  them 
and  has  them  consigned  to  their  respective  places, 
each  description  of  wool  being  stocked  in  its  own 
particular  bin.  The  pressers  next  remove  and 
press  each  sort  into  separate  bales,  and  on  each 
bale  is  placed  a  brand  denoting  class  of  sheep  and 
quality  of  wool.  While  all  this  is  going  on,  tar- 
boys  dart  hither  and  thither  as  the  cry  of  "Tar!" 
arises,  where  a  sheep  has  been  accidentally  cut  by 
the  shears.  The  shearing  at  one  of  the  big  stations 
may  take  a  month  to  six  weeks,  but  by  the  end  of 
that  time  the  wool  of  perhaps  200,000  sheep  will 
be  made  up  into  bales  and  most  of  it  on  its  way 
to  port. 

The  transportation  of  the  wool,  like  everything 
else,  has  been  vastly  improved  since  the  days  of 
slow-moving  bullock  teams  and  tramp  steamers. 
Now  the  squatter,  in  addition  to  abundant  horse- 
flesh, has  the  latest  modes  of  traction  at  his  dis- 
posal, besides  being  adequately  catered  for  by 
railway  and  steamship  companies.  The  wool 
takes  nothing  like  the  time  to  market  that  it 
formerly  did;  indeed,  it  is  often  transported,  sold, 
manufactured,  and  being  worn  by  the  people  in 
England  hi  far  less  time  than  it  took  in  the  old 


106  WOOL 

days  to  convey  the  raw  wool  from  the  Antipodes 
to  the  London  market. 

In  another  chapter  the  methods  of  marketing 
the  wool  are  specially  dealt  with,  and  therefore  it 
is  only  necessary  here  to  follow  the  wool  after  it 
has  been  received  in  bale  at  the  manufacturer's 
premises. 

It  might  be  thought  that  all  wool  coming  from 
the  same  place  and  from  the  same  breed  of  sheep 
would  be  ready,  after  some  little  cleansing,  to  go 
at  once  to  the  spinners  and  weavers.  But  this  is 
not  so  by  any  means.  Wool  calls  for  a  good  deal 
of  preparation  before  it  can  start  on  its  way  to 
the  actual  cloth-maker.  First  of  all,  it  must  be 
"sorted,"  and  this  in  itself  is  a  process  calling  for 
great  skill.  How  to  be  able  to  tell  at  a  glance  the 
length  and  quality  of  the  "staple,"  and  judge  just 
the  sort  of  wool  suitable  for  a  particular  pur- 
pose, requires  long  experience  and  much  train- 
ing; for,  obviously,  great  economy  or  great 
waste  may  depend  upon  the  sorter,  as  well  as 
trouble  or  ease  in  the  subsequent  manufacturing 
processes. 

The  work  of  the  wool-sorter  is  nowadays,  how- 
ever, much  simplified  by  the  system  obtaining  in 
Australia  and  elsewhere  of  "classing"  the  wool 
before  it  is  baled.  The  shearer  himself  makes  a 
rough  classification  as  he  does  his  work,  and  after- 


SHEARING  AND  SORTING  107 

wards  a  highly-paid  expert  goes  over  the  fleeces 
and  makes  the  "clip"  additionally  saleable  by 
division  and  sub-division  of  the  wool.  Each  fleece 
contains  twelve  or  fifteen  qualities  within  itself, 
but  these  are  often  classified  again  into  two  or 
three  times  as  many.  The  squatter  finds  it  to  his 
advantage  to  engage  the  most  able  men  available 
for  the  purpose,  and  during  shearing  time  often 
pays  the  expert  classer  at  the  rate  of  £500  or 
£600  a  year.  By  classification  he  makes  infinitely 
better  prices  in  the  wool  market  than  he  otherwise 
would,  and  finds  his  outlay  in  this  department 
particularly  remunerative. 

There  is  a  very  pronounced  difference  between 
wool-classing  and  wool-sorting.  The  first  may  be 
defined  as  merely  keeping  the  coarse  from  the  fine, 
the  long  from  the  short,  the  heavy  from  the  light, 
and  the  dirty  from  the  clean;  whereas  wool-sort- 
ing is  the  breaking  up  of  the  fleece  into  many 
sorts  to  suit  the  exact  requirements  of  the  manu- 
facturer. A  sheep  produces  many  sorts  of  wool 
in  the  same  fleece,  and,  were  the  wool  to  be  used 
just  as  it  is  shorn,  the  yarn  obtained  from  it  would 
be  faulty  and  very  difficult  to  work,  especially  in 
the  later  stages  of  manufacture.  At  the  present 
time,  when  a  good  deal  of  wool  is  "classed,"  the 
buyer  probably  sorts  with  a  particular  material  in 
view,  and  is  not  concerned  with  the  question  as  to 


108  WOOL 

how  few  or  how  many  descriptions  can  be  made 
out  of  the  bale  before  him. 

The  sorter,  a  familiar  figure  in  his  long  blue 
smock,  has  his  quarters  close  to  where  the  bales  of 
wool  are  stored,  and  does  his  work  with  the  aid  of 
a  wired  screen,  or  "hurdle,"  which  is  generally 
placed  in  the  position  of  an  inclined  desk  in  front 
of  a  window  where  the  light  is  good.  Underneath 
the  screen  an  arrangement  is  to  be  found  for 
carrying  off  the  dust  and  impurities  which  are 
shaken  out  when  the  bale  is  first  opened,  and  which 
are  often  a  source  of  great  danger  to  the  sorter. 
Dirty  wool  in  its  raw  state  is  frequently  a  great 
carrier  of  anthrax  germs,  and  deaths  are  recorded 
yearly  from  this  terrible  disease  in  the  wool  dis- 
tricts of  the  North  of  England.  It  is  stated  that 
there  is  little  danger  in  handling  British  or  Aus- 
tralian wools,  but  in  Turkey,  Russia,  and  Far 
Eastern  parts  of  the  world  the  disease  is  fairly 
common,  and  the  infection  is  sometimes  carried 
abroad  in  the  exported  fleeces. 

Although  to  most  outsiders  one  part  of  a  fleece 
might  appear  to  be  pretty  well  as  good  as  another, 
it  is  a  vastly  varied  thing  in  the  eyes  of  the  expert 
wool-sorter.  He  is  able  to  separate  the  wool  of 
each  sheep  into  many  different  qualities,  as  we 
haye  shown,  with  wonderful  accuracy,  but  often 
his  greatest  trouble  is  not  to  arrange  the  wool 


SHEARING  AND  SORTING  109 

into  various  lengths  of  staple,  but  how  to  find  a 
means  of  eliminating  the  various  "faults"  and 
foreign  substances  which  may  be  present.  One  of 
the  difficulties  he  has  to  contend  with  is  to  be 
found  in  the  black  and  grey  hairs  which  appear, 
often  quite  unaccountably,  in  white  fleeces,  and 
which  are  not  removable  by  the  ordinary  processes 
of  sorting.  So  great  a  nuisance  did  these  dark 
hairs  become  some  time  ago  that  the  Bradford 
Chamber  of  Commerce  were  obliged  to  take  steps 
to  try  to  get  the  contamination  eradicated  at  its 
source.  The  Chamber,  consequently,  issued  rec- 
ommendations to  farmers  at  home  and  abroad  not 
to  breed  from  black  or  grey  sheep,  to  take  the 
greatest  care  to  select  rams  from  flocks  as  free 
from  grey  hairs  as  possible,  and  to  slaughter  all 
black  and  grey  lambs. 

Another  bugbear  of  the  manufacturer  of  wool, 
and  especially  the  manufacturer  of  the  finest 
"stuffs"  used  in  the  dressmaking  trade,  has  arisen 
from  the  impurities  which  have  in  the  past  been 
inseparable  from  the  baling  of  the  fibre.  Wool 
comes  into  the  country  from  abroad  in  jute  bags, 
or  "packs,"  as  they  are  called,  and  when  the  packs 
have  been  opened  it  has  been  invariably  found 
that  some  of  the  loose  fibre  from  the  packing 
material  has  become  mixed  in  the  wool.  If  this 
jute  by  any  mischance  is  not  discovered  and  gets 


110  WOOL 

into  the  manufactured  piece  the  result  may  be 
absolutely  disastrous.  Being  of  vegetable  fibre, 
the  pullings  of  the  packs  will  not  take  the  dyes 
like  the  animal  fibre.  If  a  shred  of  twine  or  jute 
becomes  mixed  with  the  wool,  it  will  often  bleach 
white  when  scoured  and  get  through  any  combing 
process  and  into  the  yarn,  and  finally  into  the 
cloth  itself;  and  when  a  serge  or  self-coloured 
cloth  comes  to  be  dyed,  these  vegetable  fibres 
refuse  to  take  the  same  dye  as  the  wool  fibres,  and 
small  discoloured  flecks  or  streaks  appear  in  the 
piece.  Manufacturers  have  to  keep  special  girls 
regularly  at  work  overlooking  the  cloth  to  pick 
out  the  burrs  or  jute  fibres. 

In  America  and  some  other  countries  where 
fleeces  are  commonly  shorn  in  half-swept  barns, 
tied  up  with  binder  twine,  and  rammed  into 
coarse  jute  sacks,  such  contamination  can  hardly 
fail  to  happen.  Even  in  Australia  and  New  Zea- 
land, where  the  tying  of  fleeces  is  scrupulously 
avoided,  and  sheds  are  carefully  swept,  clippings 
of  packing  thread  are  apt  to  get  in  occasionally. 
They  are,  indeed,  found  sometimes  in  scoured 
wool,  and  there  is  evidence  that  more  care  might 
be  taken  in  some  of  the  scouring  establishments. 
The  case  with  bales  packed  on  the  stations  is 
different.  There  the  vegetable  fibre  can  only  get 
in  from  the  bale.  When  a  bale  arrives  in  England, 


SHEARING  AND  SORTING  111 

at  the  end  of  its  long  journey  it  is  frequently 
found  that,  if  one  side  of  it  is  stripped,  the  edge  of 
the  wool  which  was  next  it  is  covered  with  scarcely 
visible  fibres  which  have  come  from  the  bale, 
probably  during  dumping.  Very  great  care  is 
used  on  many  stations  to  buy  the  best  jute  bales, 
and  trouble  is  even  taken  to  singe  the  inside  of  the 
bale,  and  fasten  it  with  steel  clips. 

But,  notwithstanding  every  precaution,  the  re- 
sult remains  unsatisfactory,  and  suggestions  have 
repeatedly  been  made  that  wool  should  be  packed 
in  paper-lined  bales.  This,  of  course,  means  an 
added  expense  to  the  wool-grower,  seeing  that 
the  manufacturer  is  not  inclined  to  pay  more  for 
the  raw  material  on  the  score  of  the  extra  cost 
for  baling,  and  the  reform  has  not  been  taken 
up  very  enthusiastically.  In  view  of  this  trouble 
to  the  manufacturer,  the  writer  was  particu- 
larly interested  recently  in  the  efforts  that  are 
being  put  forth  by  a  London  firm  to  produce  a 
wool  pack  of  very  strong  woven  paper  cloth,  and 
already  the  pack  has  been  tried  and  found  to 
answer  admirably.  It  is  claimed  for  it  that  it 
will  stand  the  strain  of  package  and  that  no  dele- 
terious fibre  can  be  rubbed  off  and  mixed  among 
the  wool.  And  even  if  any  of  the  paper  did  get 
among  the  wool,  it  would  have  no  ill  effects,  seeing 
that  it  would  take  the  dyes  quite  as  well  as  any 


112  WOOL 

wool.  The  Textilite  Engineering  Company,  which 
makes  the  machinery  to  weave  these  paper  packs, 
has  also  been  able  to  evolve  a  process  by  which 
the  paper  is  waterproofed  while  being  spun  on 
the  spinning  frame.  This  procedure  not  only 
makes  the  yarn  water-resisting,  but  furthermore 
increases  its  strength,  and  gives  to  the  yarn 
a  flexibility,  or  rather  elasticity,  which  has  never 
been  attained  before  in  paper  yarn. 

Experiments  carried  out  by  the  Bradford  Wool 
Dyers'  Association  three  or  four  years  ago  proved 
that  these  paper  packs  gave  very  good  results, 
but  since  that  time  vast  improvements  have  been 
made  in  their  manufacture,  and  they  were  brought 
to  a  high  pitch  of  perfection  at  Calcutta  two  years 
ago  by  Mr.  George  Seaton  Milde,  the  managing 
director  of  the  Textilite  Company.  The  users  are 
well  satisfied  with  the  paper  pack,  but  argue  very 
strongly  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  make  much 
progress  among  the  growers  unless  the  buyer  will 
share  in  the  extra  cost  it  entails.  They  take  the 
view  that  the  matter  would  be  settled  once  and 
for  all  if  the  trade  would  submit  to  a  charge  for 
the  wool  packs,  especially  as  the  buyer  has  the 
option  of  regulating  the  price  of  the  raw  material. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PREPARATION  AND   MANUFACTURE 

WOOL,  in  its  natural  condition,  is  coated  with 
a  greasy,  fatty  substance  called  the  "yolk,"  which 
is  more  or  less  washed  out  in  the  course  of  cleans- 
ing the  fibre  of  the  impurities  the  fleece  has  gath- 
ered while  on  the  sheep's  back.  A  warm  and 
slightly  alkaline  bath  is  used  for  the  removal  of 
the  dirt,  but  this  bath  not  only  removes  the 
foreign  matter,  but  the  natural  grease  as  well, 
which  would  be  most  valuable  if  it  could  be  re- 
tained. Indeed,  as  a  well-known  manufacturer 
remarked  to  me,  a  fortune  awaits  the  person  who 
can  thoroughly  cleanse  the  wool  without  removing 
all  this  fatty  substance,  for  a  certain  amount  of 
grease  is  necessary  for  the  subsequent  manufac- 
turing processes.  At  present,  the  deficiency  has 
to  be  made  up  by  sprinkling  oil  on  the  washed 
wool. 

The  process  of  washing  is  interesting  in  itself. 
The  wool,  blended  in  accordance  with  the  cus- 
tomer's liking,  arrives  first  at  the  washing  or 
scouring  machine.  It  is  conveyed  by  a  travelling 

113 


114  WOOL 

apron  into  the  first  "wash-bowl,"  or  trough,  and 
is  carried  forward  by  the  periodical  advance  and 
recession  of  iron  forks,  one  step  at  a  time,  until  it 
is  led  ultimately  into  squeezing  rollers,  from  which 
it  emerges  perceptibly  cleaner  and  almost  dry. 
The  process  is  repeated,  and  the  material  arrives 
with  a  minimum  of  disturbance  and  dishevelment 
at  the  last  bowl. 

Although  remarkably  cleaner,  the  wool  has  not 
inevitably  lost  all  its  sand  and  vegetable  adher- 
ents, but  these  are  lessened  upon  the  machines 
known  as  "cards,"  which  are  fitted  with  large 
cylinders.  These  cylinders  are  themselves  fur- 
nished with  bent  wire  teeth,  and  the  minor  cylin- 
ders working  upon  their  circumference  are  fitted 
with  the  same  in  different  degrees  of  fineness, 
sharpness,  and  strength.  After  teasing  out  the 
wool  into  a  filmy  veil,  thus  freeing  it  from  all  the 
sand  and  many  of  the  vegetable  burrs,  the  carding 
engine  eventually  brings  the  filaments  together, 
and  these,  passing  quickly  through  a  funnel,  form 
a  rope  or  "sliver"  sufficiently  coherent  to  undergo 
subsequent  treatment  in  this  continuous  form. 
The  wool  passes  to  the  backwashing  machine  to 
be  washed  free  of  any  impurities  which  may  still 
sully  its  colour  and  to  be  dried  continuously  in  a 
compact  hot-air  chamber.  The  material  is  oiled 
by  measured  drops  of  the  best  olive  oil  as  it  passes 


CARDING   MACHINE,    SHOWING    AUTOMATIC    FEEDER 

(Copyright   by   American    Woolen    Company) 


CARDING  MACHINE,  SHOWING  THE  CARDED  WOOL 
(Copyright  by  American   Woolen   Company) 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   115 

through  a  "gilling"  machine  designed  to  straighten 
the  fibres  of  the  sliver  preparatory  to  their  passage 
into  the  comb. 

Only  after  this  sequence  of  preliminary  processes 
does  the  wool  intended  for  worsted  manufacture 
enter  the  machine  which  combs  out  the  short  and 
weak  fibres  and  the  remnant  of  vegetable  impu- 
rities and  divides  the  wool  into  two  parts,  "top" 
and  "noil."  The  former  is  the  long  wool  with  all 
its  fibres  parallel,  which  constitutes  the  raw 
material  of  the  worsted  spinner.  The  noil,  or 
short  wool,  is  invaluable  for  making  blankets, 
flannels,  tweeds,  and  other  woollen  cloths.  The 
separation  of  long  from  short  is  effected  normally 
upon  a  Noble  comb,  fed  with  carded  sliver  supplied 
from  balls  set  around  the  circumference  near  to 
the  ground.  The  carded  wool  is  led  upwards 
through  conductors,  and  thus  to  the  pins  or  teeth 
of  an  annular  comb  rotating  in  the  horizontal 
plane.  This  is  the  comb  called  the  large  circle, 
inside  of  which  revolve  two  smaller  circles  fur- 
nished also  with  pin  teeth.  At  the  points  of 
contact  of  the  outer  with  the  inner  circles  dabbing 
brushes  work  vigorously  up  and  down  to  press 
the  uncombed  wool  into  the  teeth.  The  wool 
overhangs  the  edges  of  the  circles  and  is  engaged 
and  combed  by  the  passing  teeth.  The  long 
fibres  are  drawn  off,  leaving  the  short  or  noil 


116  WOOL 

fibres  within  the  pins.  The  top  is  carried  off  up- 
wards and  is  coiled  away  and  the  coil  cleared  out 
of  the  pins  is  passed  downward.  The  operation  is 
not  over  until  the  combed  top  has  been  passed 
through  a  "finisher"  box,  in  which  the  sliver  is 
made  equal  and  uniform  in  all  respects  and  has 
restored  to  it  the  moisture  lost  in  the  preceding 
operations. 

The  business  of  wool-combing  is  almost  exclu- 
sively a  Yorkshire  one,  and  the  last  Home  Office 
return  showed  that  of  the  2,924  machine  combs 
in  the  kingdom  2,642  were  in  Yorkshire.  The 
Yorkshire  combs  are  all  in  Bradford  or  a  short 
distance  from  that  city.  To  a  large  extent,  the 
general  success  of  the  wool-using  industries  of  this 
kingdom  are  dependent  upon  the  wool-comber's 
work.  The  operation  of  combing  is  a  fundamental 
one  upon  which  all  subsequent  results  are  built, 
and  there  is  everything  to  be  said  for  having  wool 
combed  in  the  most  economical  and  accomplished 
manner.  It  is  claimed  that  nothing  is  wasted  by 
the  wool-comber.  The  suds  from  the  washing 
machines  after  they  are  spent  are  run  into  tanks, 
where  the  wool  grease  is  separated  from  the  water 
by  vitriol.  The  fat  thus  recovered  is  pressed  under 
heat  in  modern  machinery  built  for  the  purpose. 
The  fluid  oil  is  run  off  and  casked  to  be  sold  to 
America  or  elsewhere  for  axle-grease.  The  press 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE    117 

cake  remaining  behind  makes  a  valuable  manure 
much  used  in  Continental  countries.  The  burr- 
dust  and  sand  picked  from  the  teeth  of  the  cards 
is  saved  and  sold  for  shipment  to  France. 

The  process  for  woollens  is  different  in  the 
preparatory  stages,  the  aim  being  to  turn  short 
wool  into  relatively  thick  yarns  and  cloth,  and  not 
long  wools  into  fine  fabrics  of  thin  texture,  as  is 
generally  the  case  with  worsteds.  As  I  have 
already  pointed  out,  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween the  two  is  that  the  wool  for  worsteds  is 
combed,  and  that  for  woolens  is  carded.  The 
latter  is  washed  in  much  the  same  way  as  the 
former,  and  after  being  thoroughly  blended  is 
taken  to  the  carding  machines  which  are  made  up 
of  rollers  or  cylinders,  all  densely  covered  with 
fine  bent  wire,  and  having  much  the  appearance 
of  a  rough  hairbrush.  The  function  of  these 
cylinders  is  to  separate  the  fibre  so  minutely  that 
before  the  wool  reaches  the  final  roller  of  the  first 
machine  it  is  spread  in  an  even  film  over  the  whole 
surface.  It  is  then  combed  off  the  wires  in  an 
unbroken  sheet,  so  thin  as  to  be  transparent. 
These  carding  machines,  with  their  automatic 
feeders  and  arrangements  for  weighing  and  even 
distributing  the  wool,  are  marvels  of  ingenuity, 
and  quite  uncanny  in  their  modes  of  operation. 
First  of  all,  they  will  take  the  wool,  lock  by  lock, 


118  WOOL 

from  a  bin,  and  drop  it  into  a  pan  which  extends 
across  the  machine.  When  the  pan  has  received 
a  stated  weight,  the  apparatus  will  halt  and  wait 
until  the  pan  tips  over  and  spreads  a  uniform  load 
of  correct  weight  right  across  the  feed-sheet  of  the 
machine.  After  timing  the  operation  to  a  nicety, 
it  will  with  unerring  precision  start  again  and 
repeat  the  process,  doing  the  work  much  more 
evenly  than  is  possible  by  means  of  human  agency. 

With  the  object  of  obtaining  a  still  greater 
uniformity  the  film  of  separated  fibres  is  taken  to 
a  second  carding  machine,  and  the  wool  comes  off 
the  wire-covered  rollers  in -this  case  with  surpris- 
ing evenness.  In  the  card,  called  a  "condenser," 
the  wool  is  delivered  in  a  series  of  rings,  and  these 
soft  ropes  are  then  sent  forward  to  the  spinner. 

Spinning  is  the  art  of  twisting  fibrous  sub- 
stances into  rounded  strands  of  yarn  fitted  for 
weaving.  To  form  such  strands  two  operations 
are  essential — the  drawing  out  of  uniform  quanti- 
ties of  fibre  in  a  continuous  manner,  and  twisting 
the  material  so  drawn  out  to  give  it  coherency  and 
strain-resisting  power.  Both  weft  and  warp  have 
to  be  supplied  by  the  spinner,  but  a  word  of  ex- 
planation is  necessary  as  to  what  constitutes  the 
one  and  what  makes  the  other.  The  yarn  first 
spun  on  to  spools  is  soft  and  fragile,  and  is  only 
suitable  for  weft — that  is,  to  be  put  as  a  cop  in  the 


ENGLISH  COMBING  MACHINE 
(Copyright   by   American    Woolen    Company) 


SPINNING  FRAMES  AT  WORK 
(Copyright  by  American   Woolen   Company) 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE    119 

shuttle  and  thrown  lightly  across  the  piece  in 
weaving.  Warp  threads  must  be  of  a  different 
quality  altogether,  and  able  to  bear  much  greater 
strain.  This  is  got  by  giving  more  twist  to  the 
yarn,  and  worsted  warps  are  often  composed  of 
two  single  strands  twisted  together.  For  this 
operation  a  special  frame  called  a  "twister"  is 
required.  The  yarn  thus  twisted  has  naturally  a 
much  better  weaving  value,  and  is  frequently  used 
for  weft  as  well  as  for  warp  in  some  of  the  best 
serges  and  other  worsted  productions. 

There  are  four  types  of  spinning-machine — 
flyer,  cap,  ring,  and  mule.  The  flyer,  according 
to  the  "Wool  Year  Book"  classification,  is  used 
for  hair,  lustre,  and  low  cross-bred  wool  yarns; 
the  cap  for  the  finer  cross-breds  and  merinos;  the 
ring  for  the  softer  and  smoother  yarns  of  the 
finest  merino  qualities;  and  the  mule  for  those 
yarns  of  the  shorter  material,  such  as  fine  dry- 
spun  dress  and  hosiery  yarns,  in  which  special 
features  of  softness  and  fulness  are  required. 

The  continuous,  or  "throstle,"  frame  has  been 
adapted  to  woollen  spinning,  but  its  use  is  de- 
cidedly limited,  and  the  mule  is  still  by  far  the 
most  popular  spinning-machine  for  every  class  of 
woollen  thread,  whether  it  be  made  of  pure  wool 
or  shoddy. 

The  series  of  inventions  which  overthrew  hand- 


120  WOOL 

spinning  were  begun  by  Lewis  Paul  in  1738,  when 
he  patented  the  important  principle  of  drawing 
out  and  attenuating  a  "sliver"  or  loose  coil  of 
fibre  by  passing  it  between  successive  pairs  of 
rollers  revolving  at  increasing  rates  of  velocity. 
The  principle  of  drawing  out  fibres  by  accelerated 
motion  was  in  the  spinning  frame  or  "throstle" 
invented  by  Arkwright  in  1767,  and  it  forms  a 
fundamental  feature  of  all  modern  spinning 
machinery. 

The  wool  after  combing  or  carding  is  in  long 
fleecy  ropes,  and  it  is,  of  course,  necessary  that 
this  "sliver,"  as  it  is  called,  should  be  greatly 
reduced  in  size  before  it  can  be  used  for  either 
warp  or  weft.  In  order  to  accomplish  this,  the 
"sliver"  is  passed  through  a  series  of  machines, 
or  "boxes,"  the  function  of  which  is  to  extend  the 
wool  by  drawing  it  out  by  means  of  groups  of 
rollers.  It  is  afterwards  twisted  slightly  until  it 
resembles  loosely-twisted  rope  and  then  wound 
upon  large  bobbins.  The  reducing  process  is 
continued  on  other  machines,  and  by  the  same 
means,  until  what  was  at  the  beginning  a  thick 
uneven  coil  becomes  a  series  of  thin,  smooth 
threads.  The  drawing,  briefly,  is  accomplished 
by  rollers,  and  the  twisting  and  winding-on  by 
means  of  spindles. 

The  spinning  and  winding  of  the  threads  on  the 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   121 

bobbins  in  the  later  stages  is  exceedingly  interest- 
ing. The  working  of  the  "mule"  is  especially  so, 
with  its  moving  carriage  to  draw  or  extend  the 
threads,  and  the  curious  action  of  the  stationary 
stand  of  rollers  paying  out  the  condensed  thread 
just  so  fast  as  it  can  be  dealt  with  by  the  moving 
carriage  and  the  spindles.  The  filling  of  the 
spindles  and  bobbins,  too,  is  fascinating.  By  an 
exceptionally  complicated  series  of  wheels,  cones, 
and  belts  the  speed  of  the  bobbin  alters  continu- 
ally as  it  fills,  and  it  winds  on  the  wool  at  uniform 
tension  throughout  the  whole  process. 

Although  it  is  now  possible  automatically  to 
"doff"  the  full  bobbins  of  spun  thread  from  the 
spinning  frames  and  slip  empty  ones  on  in  their 
places,  the  work  is  still  done  by  half-time  children 
in  a  great  many  of  the  mills  in  the  North.  These 
youngsters,  as  lively  a  lot  as  can  be  found  in  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  are  wonderfully 
adept  at  their  work.  Ten  children,  for  instance, 
will  change  a  frame  of  200  bobbins  within  half  a 
minute.  The  work,  notwithstanding,  is  not  very 
arduous,  and  the  youngsters  get  long  spells  of 
leisure  while  the  bobbins  are  filling  up  again.  No 
sooner  have  they  finished  emptying  a  frame  than 
they  are  out  at  play  in  the  factory  yard  to  be 
recalled  by  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  overlooker 
when  wanted.  The  "doffer,"  generally  regarded 


122  WOOL 

as   the  most  mischievous   young  imp   alive,   is 
described  by  Edwin  Waugh,  the  Lancashire  poet, 


" ....    a  lively  cowt, 

Keen  as  a  cross-cut  saw; 
Short  yure,  sharp  teeth,  a  twinklin'  e'e, 
An'  a  little  hungry  maw!'* 

After  spinning,  a  number  of  interesting  pre- 
liminary operations  are  required  before  the  actual 
weaving  can  be  started  upon,  including  warping, 
sizing,  beaming,  healding,  and  sleying  the  yarn. 
Warping  consists  in  bringing  together  and  arrang- 
ing in  parallel  order  and  in  uniform  length  the 
number  of  threads  which  are  required  for  the 
breadth  of  web  to  be  formed.  Sizing,  or  dressing, 
is  an  operation  in  which  the  warp  yarn  so  assem- 
bled is  treated  with  a  glutinous  or  pasty  compound 
to  give  the  threads  increased  compactness  and 
tenacity.  Beaming  consists  in  spreading  the 
warp  uniformly  over  the  warp-beam,  and  in  rolling 
it  around  the  beam  in  a  regular  manner,  keeping 
the  threads  parallel  and  in  straight  order.  Heald- 
ing, or  "drawing "-in,  is  the  most  important  of 
all  operations  in  loom-mounting,  or  indeed  in 
weaving,  for  on  it  the  whole  nature  of  the  weave 
depends.  After  being  drafted  through  the  healds, 
the  warp  is  passed  between  the  splits  or  dents  of 
the  reed,  and  it  then  only  remains  to  carry  the 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   123 

warp  over  the  breast-beam,  attach  the  ends  to  the 
piece-beam,  and  the  operation  of  weaving  may 
be  begun. 

Weaving  is  the  process  of  making  cloth  by 
means  of  interlacing  warp  and  weft  threads.  In 
the  simplest  operation  of  weaving  it  is  necessary 
to  pass  one  set  of  threads  transversely  through 
another  set,  divided  into  two  series,  working 
alternately  up  and  down,  so  as  to  receive  the 
transverse  threads  in  passing  and  interlock  them, 
forming  thereby  a  united  surface.  The  hand- 
loom  was  made  to  assist  the  early  weaver  in  this 
operation,  and  the  power-loom,  with  manifold 
devices  for  operating  the  warp  and  weft,  later  on 
enormously  increased  its  efficiency.  Indeed,  the 
loom  has  now  attained  that  swiftness  and  cer- 
tainty of  action,  and  that  power  of  producing 
variety  and  quality  of  work,  that  it  may  be  said 
to  be  one  of  the  most  marvellous  of  all  mechanical 
combinations. 

Three  very  important  movements  have  to  be 
observed  in  weaving — what  are  known  as  shed- 
ding, picking,  and  beating  up.  First  of  all,  after 
the  warp  threads  have  been  made  to  be  absolutely 
parallel,  there  must  be  a  method  of  lifting  every 
end,  or  group  of  ends,  under  which  it  is  desired  to 
thread  the  weft;  there  must  be  some  means  of 
threading  the  weft  through  this  open  "shed"  of 


124  WOOL 

the  warp;  and  after  the  operation  of  the  shuttle 
every  strand  of  weft  must  be  closed  up  to  the  one 
preceding  it  in  order  that  the  cloth  may  have  a 
firm,  close  texture.  The  first  essential  of  arrang- 
ing the  warp  is  accomplished  by  means  of  winding 
the  warp  round  a  beam,  a  method  which  makes 
it  possible  to  have  a  warp  of  practically  any 
length  and  width.  It  is  common  to  find  nowadays 
warps  hundreds  of  yards  long,  many  yards  in 
width,  and  composed  of  thousands  of  ends.  Most 
"heavy  woollen"  looms,  indeed,  have  very  great 
width,  making  those  one  finds  in  cotton  mills 
seem  toys  by  comparison.  The  looms  on  the 
worsted  side,  however,  are  smaller  and  lighter, 
those  employed  for  the  weaving  of  stuff  or  dress 
goods  being  little  different  from  the  machines  in 
use  in  the  Lancashire  cotton  industry. 

To  accomplish  the  second  movement — the 
dividing  of  the  warp  into  two  portions  by  means 
of  lifting  the  threads,  in  order  to  insert  the  weft — 
the  ends  of  the  warp  are  passed  through  a  deep 
comb  of  long  straight  reeds,  which  allow  the 
threads  to  be  lifted  up  easily  and  still  kept  well 
apart.  In  order  that  the  warp  threads  may  be 
lifted  with  precision,  they  are  passed  through  tiny 
loops  of  string,  known  technically  as  healds,  and 
these  healds  are  controlled  by  means  of  tappets  in 
the  case  of  small  patterns  and  by  harness  cords 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE    125 

controlled  by  what  is  known  as  the  jacquard 
machine  in  the  case  of  larger  and  more  fancy 
patterns.  When  the  healds  are  properly  adjusted 
and  the  alternate  attachments  made,  the  warp 
threads  can  be  opened  and  closed  at  will  in  order 
to  accommodate  the  sharp-nosed  shuttle  in  its 
passage  backwards  and  forwards  across  the  cloth. 
By  alternating  in  various  ways  the  lift  of  these 
healds,  it  will  be  seen  that  many  kinds  of  weave — 
many  varied  arrangements  and  interfacings  of 
warp  and  weft — are  possible. 

The  whole  process  of  making  a  compact  web, 
however,  is  not  finished  until  the  long  line  of 
reeds  has  been  pulled  forward  and  the  weft  thread 
beaten  up  tightly  against  the  thread  immediately 
preceding  it,  in  order  to  form  a  close  and  even 
texture.  Formerly  this  beating  up  was  a  manual 
operation  in  the  old  hand-loom  days,  but  now  the 
reed  and  the  frame  to  which  it  is  attached  is  made 
to  work  backwards  and  forwards  from  the  cloth 
automatically  after  the  passage  of  the  shuttle 
with  the  weft. 

In  the  old  days  to  which  we  refer,  the  hand- 
loom  weaver  had  his  hands  very  full.  To  keep 
the  loom  going  he  was  required  to  throw  the 
shuttle  across  with  one  hand,  pull  the  reed  towards 
him  with  the  other,  and  with  both  feet  he  had  to 
work  treadles  which  alternately  opened  and  closed 


126  WOOL 

the  warp  threads.  Before  Kay's  invention  in 
1733,  it  even  required  more  than  one  hand  to 
manipulate  the  shuttle  on  a  broad  loom,  and  the 
process  must  have  been  at  that  time  a  particularly 
tedious  one.  The  object  of  the  inventor  of  the 
power-loom  was  to  co-ordinate  and  make  auto- 
matic all  these  processes,  but  the  task,  simple 
though  it  may  appear  nowadays,  was  not  accom- 
plished without  endless  worry  and  trouble  on  the 
part  of  inventors,  and  even  then  success  was  not 
attained  until  well  into  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  weaving  of  woollens,  does  not  call  for  very 
complicated  mechanism,  being  chiefly  plain,  sub- 
stantial cloths,  but  in  worsted  cloth-weaving,  in 
which  variety  is  most  desirable,  ingenuity  is  taxed 
to  its  utmost.  With  two  shafts  of  healds  in  the 
loom  only  a  plain  web  can  be  produced,  with 
three  shafts  it  is  possible  to  weave  a  simple  twill, 
and  from  this  point  upwards  the  possibility  of 
combination  and  variation  increases  enormously. 
Coloured  patterns  may  be  produced  by  employing 
warps  of  different  colours,  and  these  patterns  may 
be  still  further  diversified  by  employing  a  number 
of  shuttles  each  carrying  a  differently  coloured 
weft. 

With  every  additional  shaft,  as  already  pointed 
out,  the  designer  gets  more  elbow-room,  but,  as 
the  possibilities  of  the  ordinary  heald  shaft  were 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   127 

• 

distinctly  limited  in  number,  other  means  had  to 

be  found  of  operating  warp  threads  in  the  interest 
of  "fancy"  weaving.  By  means  of  an  attachment 
known  as  a  witch  or  dobbie  frame,  it  became 
possible  to  manipulate  about  forty-eight  sets  of 
healds,  but  this  arrangement  was  in  turn  alto- 
gether eclipsed  by  the  wonderful  jacquard  appara- 
tus, invented  in  1801  by  Joseph  Marie  Jacquard, 
a  native  of  Lyons.  The  famous  Frenchman  was 
spurred  to  action  by  the  offer  in  an  English  paper 
of  a  premium  for  a  machine  for  weaving  nets,  and 
when  the  invention  appeared  it  effected  a  com- 
plete revolution  in  the  art  of  weaving,  especially 
in  figured  fabrics.  It  was  an  apparatus  which 
could  be  adjusted  to  almost  every  kind  of  loom, 
its  office  being  merely  to  direct  those  movements 
of  the  warp-threads  which  are  required  to  produce 
the  pattern,  and  which  previously  were  effected 
by  the  weaver's  fingers. 

In  the  common  weaving  process  the  warp 
threads  are  each  passed  through  a  small  loop  in 
the  lifting  thread,  so  as  to  be  raised  by  means  of 
the  treadles,  which  act  directly  upon  the  lifting 
bars.  These  lifting  threads  in  the  jacquard  appa- 
ratus are  attached  to  certain  wires,  ending  in 
hooks,  which  are  caught  and  raised  by  each  up- 
ward motion  of  the  lifting-bar.  The  arrangement 
for  controlling  the  threads  consists  of  needles  acted 


128  WOOL 

on  by  holes  in  a  card  cylinder,  the  idea  being 
practically  that  of  the  perforated  card  in  a  musical 
box.  There  are,  however,  many  kinds  of  jacquard 
machines,  and  some  are  highly  technical  and 
extremely  complicated.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
great  invention  not  only  obviated  the  tedious 
task  known  as  "tying  the  harness,"  but  made  it 
possible  for  the  most  varied  and  intricate  patterns 
to  be  woven  with  almost  as  much  ease  and  rapid- 
ity as  a  piece  of  plain  cloth. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  great  genius 
who  gave  to  the  world  the  jacquard  machine  had 
to  meet  just  the  same  kind  of  persecution  at  the 
hands  of  his  fellow-workmen  as  the  Englishmen 
who  completely  revolutionised  spinning  and  weav- 
ing, and,  like  them,  the  Frenchman  had  the  morti- 
fication of  seeing  his  handiwork  smashed  to  pieces 
by  enraged  mobs  who  fancied  that  their  means  of 
livelihood  were  jeopardised  by  the  new  invention.  > 
Jacquard's  countrymen  made  amends  later  on, 
however,  for  on  the  exact  spot  in  Lyons  where 
his  first  completed  machine  was  wrecked,  they 
long  years  afterwards  erected  a  splendid  monu- 
ment to  his  honour. 

It  should  be  added  that  of  recent  years  the 
Bradford  manufacturers  have  shown  an  increas- 
ing disposition  to  adopt  the  automatic  loom  for 
the  plainer  kind  of  goods,  the  well-known  North- 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   129 

rop  invention  having  been  installed  in  many 
places.  This  loom,  which  is  the  product  of  a 
Keighley  man  resident  in  America,  feeds  itself 
with  weft  automatically,  and  has  a  warp  stop 
mechanism  whereby  the  loom  stops  simultane- 
ously with  the  breakage  of  a  thread.  It  is  marvel- 
lously constructed,  and  as  it  is  likely  to  come 
more  and  more  into  vogue,  especially  as  the 
latest  models  are  being  adapted  for  dobby  and 
jacquard  work,  a  few  details  will  no  doubt  be  of 
interest. 

Northrop  loom  improvements  come  under  two 
heads,  those  of  weft-changing  mechanisms  and 
warp-stopping  devices.  The  weft-changer  in- 
creases production  per  weaver.  The  warp-stop- 
ping device  does  so  to  a  small  extent,  and  the 
combination  of  the  two  results  in  utilising  labour 
to  double  the  advantage  which  would  be  obtained 
by  the  sum  of  the  two  used  separately.  The 
facts,  therefore,  present  this  curious  anomaly:  A 
good  weaver  on  small  plain  looms  has  a  capacity 
of  two  to  four  looms;  on  the  same  looms  with 
warp  stop-motion,  a  capacity  of  possibly  five  or 
six  looms;  on  looms  with  the  Northrop  weft- 
changer  alone,  a  capacity  of  from  eight  to  ten 
looms;  on  looms  with  the  Northrop  weft-changer 
and  warp  stop-motion,  a  capacity  of  twelve  and 
i  upwards,  according  to  the  class  of  cloth  woven. 


130  WOOL 

With  the  ordinary  loom,  when  the  weft  in  the 
shuttle  is  exhausted,  the  loom  is  automatically 
stopped,  and  a  certain  amount  of  product  is 
thereby  lost.  The  weaver  then  goes  through  the 
following  operations:  Releases  the  brake,  pushes 
the  sley  back,  withdraws  the  shuttle  from  the  box 
or  shed,  puts  in  the  reserve  shuttle,  operates  the 
spring  handle  to  start  the  loom,  takes  up  the 
empty  shuttle  again,  pulls  the  shuttle  spindle  out 
at  an  angle,  removes  the  exhausted  bobbin — or, 
in  the  case  of  cops,  the  cop  bottom — replaces 
with  a  new  supply  of  weft,  pulls  off  a  sufficient 
length  of  weft  from  the  weft-carrier,  snaps  the 
shuttle-spindle  back  into  place,  holds  the  end  over 
the  eye  entrance  with  the  finger,  sucks  the  weft 
through  the  hole,  and  inserts  the  shuttle  in  its 
receptacle,  where  it  remains  until  needed.  In 
comparison  with  this  series  of  operations,  the 
weaver  on  a  Northrop  loom  does  not  have  to  come 
to  the  loom  every  time  a  new  supply  of  weft  is 
necessary,  but  at  infrequent  intervals  can  take 
bobbins  or  cops  from  a  convenient  box,  pull  off  a 
sufficient  length  of  weft,  apply  the  bobbin  to  the 
hopper  notches,  or  skewer  the  cop  and  apply  the 
skewer  to  the  aforesaid  notches,  and  wind  the 
thread  on  the  hopper-stud  with  a  simultaneous 
movement. 

When  a  warp  thread  breaks  on  an  ordinary 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   131 

loom  the  machine  continues  running.  The  broken 
thread  not  being  operated  by  its  heddle  is  not 
raised  for  the  shuttle  to  pass  under,  and  it  thereby 
falls  below  the  cloth,  leaving  an  open  space  which 
is  more  or  less  visible  to  the  eye,  according  to  the 
character  of  the  cloth  woven.  Before  dropping, 
however,  this  broken  end,  extending  from  the 
cloth  in  the  direction  of  the  warp,  can  very  easily 
get  tangled  around  adjacent  warp  threads,  making 
a  "net,"  and  spoil  several  inches  of  cloth.  The 
weaver  must  then  stop  the  loom,  loosen  up  the 
cloth  from  the  cloth-roll,  pull  the  temples  back 
and  "pull  back."  In  many  mills  it  is  made  ob- 
ligatory for  the  weaver  to  stop  her  other  looms 
during  this  operation.  After  the  pulling  back 
process  the  warp-beam  must  be  turned  back,  the 
tension  of  the  cloth  adjusted,  and  the  loom  set  in 
motion  again. 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  mechanically  feasible  to 
insert  a  supply  of  weft  in  a  flying  shuttle,  which 
expels  an  empty  carrier  at  the  same  time  and 
guides  the  new  thread  past  several  detaining  pro- 
jections into  an  angled  passage-way.  Were  this 
feat  accomplished  with  the  shuttle  and  sley  at 
rest,  it  would  be  sufficiently  surprising;  but  when 
we  consider  that  the  new  weft-carrier  is  inserted 
instantaneously  with  the  shuttle  barely  across  the 
sley,  and  with  the  sley  itself  moving  in  a  direction 


132  WOOL 

at  right  angles  to  that  of  the  shuttle,  the  difficulty 
of  the  problem  may  be  realised. 

In  the  Northrop  loom  the  weft-carrier  takes  the 
form  of  either  the  usual  bobbin  or  cop-skewer, 
with  the  difference  that  each  has  large  metallic 
rings  applied  at  the  head  end  which  serve  to  en- 
gage notches  in  a  forked  spring  which  is  secured 
to  the  shuttle  body.  The  bobbin  or  skewer  is 
held  in  a  circular  hopper  by  suitable  pockets, 
which  have  a  rotary  movement  to  bring  them 
successively  into  proper  operating  position.  The 
end  of  the  weft  is  extended  from  the  carrier  and 
wound  around  a  stud.  When  the  ordinary  weft- 
fork  detects  absence  of  weft  at  the  opposite  end 
of  the  loom,  a  rod  is  turned,  which  puts  a  trans- 
ferring device  into  operative  engagement  with  the 
advancing  sley;  at  the  same  time  a  detector  finger 
reaches  forward  to  ascertain  whether  the  shuttle 
is  in  proper  position  to  receive  a  fresh  supply.  If 
everything  is  all  right,  the  transferrer — shaped 
something  like  a  hammer — presses  a  fresh  supply 
into  the  open  top  of  the  shuttle,  pushing  the  spent 
carrier  out  through  the  open  bottom  of  the  shuttle, 
down  into  a  receptacle. 

If  the  shuttle  does  not  reach  home,  or  should  it 
rebound  too  much,  the  shuttle-position  detector 
will  not  allow  the  operation.  As  the  sley  turns 
back,  the  shuttle  is  thrown  across  the  loom  and 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   133 

the  thread  unwinds  from  the  carrier,  entering  a 
slotted  passage-way  in  the  shuttle-eye.  The  sley 
then  beats  the  weft  up  and  operates  a  cutter 
attached  to  the  temple,  which  severs  the  end  of 
weft  which  extends  from  the  cloth  to  the  stud 
before  mentioned.  When  the  shuttle  is  thrown 
back,  the  weft  is  led  into  the  side-eye  from  its  new 
position  in  the  cloth,  and  the  ordinary  operation 
of  weaving  continues.  Should  the  shuttle  fail  to 
thread  or  "misthread,"  or  should  there  be  no 
weft  supply  transferred  for  any  reason,  the  loom 
will  stop  through  a  device  actuated  by  repeated 
failure  of  the  weft-fork. 

On  an  ordinary  loom  the  operative  is  for  the 
most  part  engaged  in  the  detection  and  repair  of 
broken  warp  threads,  which,  together  with  the 
constant  shuttling  of  weft  on  three  or  four  looms, 
occupies  the  weaver's  time  and  energy  to  its 
utmost  limit.  But  when  a  loom  is  fitted  with  the 
Northrop  automatic  device  for  the  replenishing 
of  weft,  then  the  operative's  work  is  appreciably 
reduced  by  its  being  simply  necessary  to  attend 
to  the  broken  ends  alone.  The  warp  stop-motion, 
however,  is  an  essential  adjunct  to  a  loom  having 
mechanical  means  of  replenishing  the  weft,  be- 
cause it  is  required  that  the  operative  shall  man- 
age the  maximum  number  of  looms,  and  to  attain 
this,  provision  must  be  made  whereby  a  broken 


134  WOOL 

end  is  at  once  detected  and  the  loom  automatic- 
ally stopped. 

Briefly  described,  the  warp-stop  motion  on  a 
Northrop  loom  consists  of  a  thin  steel  drop  wire 
some  3%  inches  in  length,  suspended  by  a  warp 
thread  passing  through  a  round  eye  in  its  centre, 
and  having  a  slot  above,  through  which  is  passed 
a  flat  bar  keeping  the  drop  wire  in  position  in  the 
warp  stop-box.  At  the  bottom  of  this  box  is  a 
serrated  vibrator  moving  with  a  reciprocating 
motion  from  a  simple  eccentric  on  the  tappet 
shaft.  The  breaking  of  the  warp  thread  allow- 
ing the  detector  to  fall  in  the  path  of  this  vi- 
brator at  once  puts  in  action  a  knock-off  finger 
in  contact  with  the  starting-handle.  Immedi- 
ately an  end  breaks  the  loom  stops;  therefore 
the  weaving  down  of  several  ends  and  consequent 
floats  are<at  once  avoided.  The  operative  is  re- 
lieved from  all  mental  anxiety,  and  is  not  required 
to  be  constantly  on  the  look-out  for  broken 
ends. 

Another  very  successful  automatic  loom  is  of 
Swiss  origin,  and  bears  the  name  of  the  "Steinen." 
The  weft  replenishment  in  this  case  is  effected  by 
means  of  electricity,  and  the  threading  of  the 
shuttle  is  done  by  the  aid  of  compressed  air.  A 
useful  feature  of  the  loom,  which  has  proved 
exceedingly  reliable  at  work,  is  that  whenever  it 


AN   UP-TO-DATE   WEAVING    SHED 
(Copyright   by   American    Woolen    Company) 


PREPARATION  AND  MANUFACTURE   135 

stops  through  either  weft  or  warp  breakage,  or 
any  other  reason,  a  small  electric  lamp  is  immedi- 
ately lighted  to  call  the  attention  of  the  weaver. 
It  will  be  readily  seen  how  useful  this  device  is 
when  it  is  stated  that  in  many  of  the  Continental 
cotton  mills  in  which  it  has  been  installed  only 
three  attendants  are  required  to  look  after  a 
hundred  looms. 

With  these  advantages,  it  might  be  regarded 
as  remarkably  strange  that  the  automatic  loom 
has  not  been  more  generally  adopted  in  the  woollen 
trade.  It  should  be  explained,  however,  that  to 
install  these  looms,  which  are  naturally  much 
more  costly  than  the  ordinary  ones,  involves  a 
very  heavy  capital  outlay,  and,  further,  many 
are  loth  to  part  with  looms  which  are  doing 
their  work  so  well.  The  automatic  loom,  it 
is  contended,  neither  works  so  steadily  nor 
with  such  precision  as  the  plain  loom,  nor  is 
there  much  advantage  to  be  gained  when  the 
speed,  the  number  of  thread  breakages,  and  the 
amount  of  tackling  are  fully  taken  into  con- 
sideration. 

Many  other  inventions  for  improving  or  speed- 
ing-up weaving  might  be  mentioned,  and  notably 
the  circular  loom,  which  allows  of  many  shuttles 
filled  with  differently  coloured  wefts  being  kept 
continually  running,  but  few  revolutionary  de- 


136  WOOL 

vices  have  been  adopted.  For  cloths  intended  to 
be  woven  carefully  and  beautifully  finished  the 
manufacturer  prefers  to  stick  to  his  old  and  tried 
friend  the  plain  loom,  where  personal  supervision 
can  be  exercised  to  the  fullest  extent. 


CHAPTER  X 

FINISHING   PROCESSES 

PERHAPS  the  finishing  of  a  piece  of  cloth  is  as 
interesting  an  operation — or  series  of  operations — 
as  any  to  be  found  in  the  whole  factory.  First, 
as  regards  the  more  complicated  "worsteds,"  the 
cloth  passes  inch  by  inch  under  the  microscopic 
inspection  of  young  women  specially  trained  to 
the  work.  Knots  are  cut  off  where  broken  yarns 
have  been  joined  together;  any  slight  disorder  of 
the  threads  is  reduced  to  order;  with  needle  and 
thread  defects  are  made  good  so  as  to  defy  detec- 
tion. In  short,  the  human  hand  is  summoned  to 
remedy  the  faults  and  imperfections  of  the  work 
of  what  is  generally  deemed  to  be  the  most  perfect 
of  all  mechanism.  The  cloth  must  then  be  washed, 
for  it  has  been  stained  with  numerous  grease 
spots  in  its  passage  through  the  loom.  After 
washing,  the  piece  may  perhaps  be  "milled," 
which  is  the  technical  term  for  the  pounding  and 
hammering  which  the  cloth  receives  while  still 
saturated  with  soap,  the  effect  of  which  is  to  close 
up  the  fibres  and  shrink  the  cloth  to  the  requisite 
width.  Milling  increases  also  the  strength  of  the 

137 


138  WOOL 

cloth,  and  enhances  its  wearing  value  by  forcing 
the  fibres  into  the  closest  relation. 

It  would  be  too  tedious  to  enter  into  any  de- 
scription of  the  remaining  processes — how  a  nap 
is  raised  on  the  surface  by  teazles;  how  the  cloth 
is  steamed,  stretched  and  brushed,  cropped  by  a 
very  fine  machine  acting  on  the  principle  of  the 
lawn  mower;  how  it  is  then  pressed  between  hot 
plates,  and  dry-steamed  to  impart  a  bloom,  rolled 
into  the  piece,  and  lastly  sent  to  the  piece  room, 
where  it  is  again  inspected,  measured,  and  then 
packed  for  transport.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more 
striking  in  the  whole  scope  of  the  worsted  manu- 
facture than  the  change  of  appearance  between 
the  time  the  cloth  leaves  the  loom  and  enters  the 
piece  room. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  a  piece  of  cloth  can 
be  either  made  or  marred  in  the  finishing,  and 
nowadays  the  work,  in  which  the  dyer  and  designer 
co-operate,  is  raised  to  a  very  fine  art.  Only  the 
bare  rudiments  of  finishing  are  given  above;  in 
the  case  of  the  finest  and  most  attractive  dress 
materials  many  other  cunning  processes  may  be 
gone  through.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing,  for 
instance,  for  cloth  to  be  raised  and  cropped  two 
or  three  times  in  succession,  and  many  fabrics, 
such  as  beavers  and  meltons,  are  often  milled 
over  and  over  again. 


FINISHING  PROCESSES  139 

Dyeing  is,  obviously,  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant of  the  processes.  Formerly,  nearly  all  woollen 
goods  were  dyed  after  leaving  the  loom;  nowa- 
days, the  practice  is  becoming  more  general  of 
dyeing  the  yarn  previous  to  spinning.  This  mode 
of  procedure  insures  that  absolutely  accurate 
shades  of  colour  can  be  guaranteed  or  always 
reproduced.  The  tailor  may  therefore  cut  a  coat 
and  vest  from  one  piece  and  the  trousers  from 
another,  without  any  fear  of  the  slightest  varia- 
tion in  colour  being  perceptible — an  immense  con- 
venience and  economy  which  a  layman  may  not 
fully  appreciate. 

Until  about  fifty  years  ago,  writes  an  expert  in 
The  Times  Textile  Supplement,  the  whole  of  the 
dyes  used  were  obtained  from  natural  sources,  and 
were  comparatively  few  in  number,  those  of  much 
importance  not  exceeding  a  dozen.  Amongst  the 
most  important  were  indigo,  logwood,  fustic,  coch- 
ineal, and  orchil.  The  production  of  synthetic 
dyestuffs  originated  in  England  in  1858,  when 
Perkin  discovered  the  "mauve"  with  which  his 
name  will  ever  be  associated.  The  industry  has 
been  mainly  developed  in  Germany,  and  there  are 
now  on  the  market  upwards  of  2,000  different 
chemical  products  which  are  used  as  dyestuffs. 

The  dyeing  processes  required  in  the  fixation  of 
different  dyes  vary  according  to  the  chemical  and 


140  WOOL 

other  properties  of  the  dyes.  Some  are  ready- 
formed  colours,  and  dye  either  without  addition 
(direct  dyes)  or  with  addition  of  acid  (acid  dyes). 
Others  are  ready-formed  colours,  but,  being  quite 
insoluble  in  water,  they  must  be  chemically 
treated  (reduced)  before  they  can  be  fixed  upon 
the  wool.  These  are  the  so-called  vat  dyes,  of 
which  indigo  is  the  best-known  example.  Another 
most  important  group  are  the  mordant  dyes, 
which  are  not  complete  colours  in  themselves,  but 
must  be  chemically  combined  with  some  metallic 
salt  before  the  actual  colour  is  produced.  The 
direct  dyes  are  applied  by  merely  boiling  the 
wool  in  their  solution  for  about  an  hour.  The 
acid  dyes  are  similarly  applied,  with  the  addition 
of  a  small  amount  of  sulphuric,  acetic,  or  formic 
acid.  The  insoluble  vat  dyes  are  induced  to  form 
a  solution  by  combining  them  with  hydrogen,  this 
being  supplied  by  the  action  of  ferments,  as  in 
the  "woad  vat,"  or  by  chemical  reducing  agents, 
such  as  hydrosulphite  of  soda.  An  alkali  is  also 
required  to  dissolve  the  new  compound  formed. 
The  wool  is  saturated  with  the  warm  solution  and 
then  exposed  to  the  air,  when  the  reverse  change 
takes  place  and  the  original  insoluble  dye  is  "re- 
produced on  the  fibre."  In  applying  the  mordant 
dyes  two  operations  are  usually  necessary,  the 
wool  being  first  boiled  with  a  solution  of  the 


FINISHING  PROCESSES  141 

metallic  mordant — usually  bichromate  of  potash—- 
and then  in  a  separate  bath  the  "mordanted" 
wool  is  boiled  with  the  dyestuff,  when  the  colour 
is  formed  on  the  fibre. 

Many  minor  modifications  of  the  above  proc- 
esses are  required  for  the  successful  application  of 
different  members  of  any  of  the  groups.  The  req- 
uisite "fastness"  of  dyes  has  also  to  be  carefully 
studied.  For  example,  says  the  expert  quoted, 
it  is  much  more  important  that  dyes  upon  ma- 
terials used  for  window  curtains  should  be  fast 
to  light  than  they  should  be  fast  to  washing* 
whereas  in  material  used  for  underclothing  the 
relative  importance  is  exactly  the  reverse.  Mod- 
ern dyeing,  therefore,  makes  great  demands  on 
skill  and  knowledge,  and  the  most  successful  dyer 
has  generally  had  an  all-round  technical  training 
to  fit  him  for  his  work. 

One  of  the  most  serious  problems  which  arose 
out  of  the  war  was  in  relation  to  dyewares,  about 
80  per  cent,  of  which  had  hitherto  come  from 
Germany.  The  war  brought  home  to  our  textile 
industries  the  extent  of  the  monopoly  which  the 
Germans  had  acquired  as  suppliers  of  dyewares, 
not  only  to  this  country,  but  to  users  in  all  parts 
of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds,  for  on  the  one  hand 
prices  rose  from  100  to  400  per  cent.,  and  on  the 
other  hand  supplies  came  to  an  end  in  a  very 


142  WOOL 

short  space  of  time.  Owing  to  the  impossibility 
of  getting  certain  colours,  shade  cards  which  had 
been  sent  out  by  the  Bradford  Dyers'  Association 
before  the  war  broke  out  had  to  be  recalled,  and 
after  consultation  with  merchants  a  revised  card 
of  more  sombre  tones  was  issued.  Even  so,  the 
supply  of  dyewares,  particularly  bright  colours, 
was  an  awkward  problem,  for  in  some  colours  all 
the  dye  available  was  mortgaged  for  work  con- 
tracted for,  and  this,  of  course,  was  very  quickly 
exhausted.  The  dyewares  position,  which  had 
been  so  seriously  imperilled  by  our  easy-going 
system,  began  at  once  to  engage  the  attention  of 
users,  and  a  scheme  was  set  on  foot  to  establish, 
with  Government  assistance,  works  for  the  manu- 
facture of  dyewares  in  this  country. 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  dyer  and  finisher  must 
go  the  designer  of  cloth,  if  the  finished  product 
is  to  be  an  artistic  success.  And  to  the  designer 
must  undoubtedly  be  given  much  of  the  credit 
for  the  beautiful  productions  that  are  to  be  found 
in  England  at  the  present  day.  While  the  ma- 
jority of  the  home  manufacturers  are  remaining 
staunch  to  the  British  tradition  for  purity  and 
excellence,  the  English  designer  in  both  sections 
of  the  industry  is  winning  the  world's  approval  by 
the  beauty  and  variety  of  his  work.  Even  the 
French  artists  in  dress  goods  find  that  those  en- 


FINISHING  PROCESSES  143 

gaged  in  the  "Bradford  trade"  are  running  them 
very  close  both  in  style  and  finish,  while  Hud- 
dersfield  often  has  cause  for  complaint  that  its 
designs  in  fancy  worsteds  are  greedily  pirated 
abroad.  The  designer's  art  has,  indeed,  become 
something  to  marvel  at.  As  one  Huddersfield 
expert,  with  legitimate  pride,  puts  it:  "The  up- 
to-date  production  of  a  first-rate  mill  should  more 
aptly  be  described  as  a  *  creation/  a  tone-picture 
with  cloth  for  the  canvas,  for  in  it  is  the  designer's 
personality  just  as  surely  as  any  painter's,  and  no 
bald  definition  such  as  a  *  brown  stripe  suiting*  or 
a  'smoke  trousering'  can  possibly  give  even  an  ap- 
proximate idea  of  the  beauty  of  contrasted  colour- 
ing, the  tricks  with  silk-twist,  silk,  rib  effects, 
and  the  livening  of  the  whole  by  cunningly  com- 
mingled double-twist  fancy  over-checkings.  The 
designer's  art  has  reached  a  stage  which  even  ten 
years  ago  would  have  been  deemed  unattain- 
able. Thanks  to  modern  facilities  in  spinning  and 
dyeing,  and  spurred  along  by  an  ever-increasing 
competition,  cloth  construction  is  at  the  present 
time  one  of  the  most  highly-advanced  arts,  and 
gives  to  the  world  the  most  beautiful  products." 
The  designer  admittedly  has  done  much,  but 
his  efforts  would  have  been  of  little  avail  had 
not  the  North  Country  machine-maker  kept  well 
abreast  with  him  and  with  workers  in  the  other 


144  WOOL 

branches  of  the  trade.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to 
imagine  that  invention  has  been  at  a  standstill 
since  the  giants  of  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  passed  away.  The  brains  in  the  machine- 
shops  of  Keighley,  Rochdale,  and  other  towns 
have  been  constantly  on  the  alert,  and  thousands 
of  devices  have  been  introduced  to  improve  the 
machine  and  stimulate  production.  And  it  is 
not  only  upon  the  spinning-frame  and  the  loom 
that  the  mechanic  has  exercised  his  ingenuity; 
perhaps  if  a  verdict  had  to  be  given  as  to  which 
departments  had  benefited  most  by  inventions 
during  the  past  half  century  it  would  be  on  the 
sides  devoted  to  the  processes  of  preparation  and 
finishing.  All  the  business  of  washing,  scouring, 
and  drying  wools  was  not  so  very  long  ago  done 
by  hand;  now  the  great  washing  machines  with 
their  automatic  forks  and  the  hot-air  suction 
chambers  for  drying  purposes  have  absolutely 
revolutionised  the  early  stages  of  the  work,  while 
the  antiquated  and  leisurely  "mill-bottom"  proc- 
esses have  nearly  all  vanished  in  favour  of  more 
rapid,  economical,  and  efficient  methods.  With 
the  advances  made  in  the  spinning  and  weaving 
departments,  it  became  necessary  both  to  prepare 
the  wool  and  finish  the  cloth  more  speedily,  and 
this  could  only  be  done  by  putting  aside  the 
lumbering  old  wooden  contrivances  of  an  earlier 


FINISHING  PROCESSES  145 

day.  There  is  only  one  really  important  thing  in 
the  preparation  stages  which  has  not  yet  been 
accomplished,  and,  as  previously  pointed  out,  a 
big  fortune  awaits  the  man  who  can  surmount  the 
difficulty.  It  concerns  the  problem  as  to  how 
wool  can  be  washed  without  extracting  the  natu- 
ral grease.  At  present,  the  fibre  has  to  be  scoured 
of  its  grease  to  cleanse  it,  and  then  it  has  to  be 
slightly  greased  again  to  work  it. 

.  An  instance  may  be  given  of  how  the  machine- 
maker  has  more  than  once  saved  the  situation. 
Some  thirty  years  ago  Bradford  found  itself  in  a 
most  unenviable  position,  nearly  the  whole  of  its 
trade  having  been  filched  away  by  the  French. 
Its  hard-headed  citizens  tried  every  device  they 
knew  to  woo  back  fortune,  but  to  no  purpose.  As 
a  last  resort  they  decided  upon  an  exhibition, 
wherein  they  would  be  able  to  put  before  the  world 
evidences  of  their  skill  and  workmanship,  and 
called  together  a  great  company  for  the  ceremonial 
inauguration.  JMen  with  eloquent  and  persuasive 
tongues  drew  attention  to  the  beautiful  and 
cunningly-wrought  fabrics  for  which  the  city  had 
been  famous,  and  hoped  thereby  to  make  slaves 
of  all  the  merchant  princes.  When,  however,  the 
orators  had  made  an  end  to  their  tale,  up  rose  a 
man  they  had  scarce  reckoned  with — a  neighbour 
whose  fame  in  machine  construction  was  world- 


146  WOOL 

wide.  "This  display,"  he  said,  in  effect,  "is  fine, 
and  the  talk  finer,  but  your  labour  is  useless  so 
long  as  you  continue  to  follow  your  ancient  de- 
vices. You  might  as  well  try  to  sweep  back  the 
ocean  as  endeavour,  with  your  old  gear,  to  com- 
pete with  the  machines  I  am  supplying  to  France." 
Bradford  saw  at  once  where  its  weakness  lay.  It 
quickly  began  to  put  its  house  in  order,  with  the 
result  that  it  finds  itself  to-day  at  the  very  top  of 
the  world's  trade. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  EXTREMES   OF   WOOLLEN   PRODUCTION 

HITHERTO  only  the  manufacture  of  the  main  or 
medium  class  of  goods — the  kind  of  cloth  which  is 
worn  by  the  middle  and  upper  artisan  class,  and 
the  flannels,  blankets,  and  so  forth,  which  are 
in  general  use — has  been  discussed.  There  are, 
however,  two  extremes  in  the  clothing  trade — 
shoddy  and  hand-made — which  are  deserving  of 
special  attention,  the  last  named  being  the  genu- 
ine article,  and  the  former  made  more  or  less  of 
wool.  Indeed,  what  is  known  as  "shoddy"  may 
be  all  wool;  it  is  often  only  of  inferior  quality 
because  it  has  been  previously  manufactured,  but 
hand-made  goods  are,  for  a  sufficient  reason, 
nearly  always  made  of  the  purest  material.  That 
reason  is,  that  if  the  hand-spinner  attempted  to 
mix  his  wool  with  shoddy  he  would  come  to  grief; 
he  must  have  sound,  long-fibred  wool.  Conse- 
quently, a  buyer  of  home-spun  cloth  can  assure 
himself  that  he  obtains  what  he  pays  for.  Of 
course,  there  are  any  amount  of  machine-made 
imitations  of  Harris  and  other  Scotch  tweeds,  but 

147 


148  WOOL 

if  the  purchaser  deals  direct  with  the  Crofters' 
Agency,  or  with  a  branch  of  one  or  other  of  the 
well-known  home  industries  associations  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  he  need  have  no  fear  of  having 
an  inferior  article  palmed  off  upon  him. 

By  far  the  greater  proportion  of  the  real  hand- 
made cloth  comes  from  the  North  of  Scotland, 
where  the  crofters  doggedly  preserved  their  trade 
long  after  hand-loom  weaving  in  England  had 
been  killed  by  steam-driven  machinery.  The 
survivals  of  the  hand-loom  in  England  to-day 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  earlier 
trade.  What  one  sees  in  a  few  country  places 
nowadays  is  really  a  revival — an  outcome  of  a 
desire  to  reinstate  the  practice  of  artistic  crafts; 
in  Scotland  it  was  a  grim  determination  on  the 
part  of  a  poverty-ridden  people  not  to  be  robbed 
of  their  scanty  means  of  livelihood  that  kept  the 
crofter  industry  alive.  The  manner  in  which  they 
held  on  to  the  industry  can  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  there  is  now  said  to  be  some  6,000  people 
in  the  islands  about  the  North  of  Scotland  en- 
gaged wholly  or  in  part  in  the  production  of 
home-spuns,  there  being  no  fewer  than  1,500 
spinners  and  200  weavers  in  the  island  of  Harris 
alone. 

Home-spuns,  which  rely  for  their  superiority 
over  machine-made  goods  partly  on  the  quality 


EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION     149 

of  the  wool  used  and  partly  on  the  amount  of 
twist  the  spinner  puts  into  the  yarn,  are  necessarily 
costly,  because  it  will  take  an  average  family 
from  twelve  to  fourteen  weeks  to  spin  and  weave 
one  web  of  forty  yards.  The  remuneration  is, 
indeed,  very  scanty  when  everything  is  considered, 
for  the  labour  put  into  some  of  the  best  cloths  is 
quite  prodigious.  Many,  it  is  said,  do  not  make 
out  of  the  industry  more  than  the  present-day 
allowance  to  an  old-age  pensioner. 

The  crofters  (or  cottars,  as  they  are  often  called) 
most  famous  for  the  making  of  these  home-spuns 
chiefly  inhabit  the  islands  known  as  the  Outer 
Hebrides,  lying  off  the  western  coast  of  Scotland, 
and  in  both  language  and  customs  differ  in  many 
ways  from  their  compatriots  on  the  mainland. 
They  are  a  thrifty  and  simple  people,  who,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  islands  are  composed  of 
marshy  and  rocky  soil  practically  unfit  for  culti- 
vation, have  to  depend  entirely  on  the  tweed  in- 
dustry and  the  fishing  for  their  simple  necessities. 
For  generations  they  have  enjoyed  a  world-wide 
reputation  for  their  skill  and  craftsmanship  in 
making  hand-made  tweeds,  and  although  many 
have  tried  to  imitate  them,  their  efforts  have  not 
been  very  successful.  For  all  their  skill,  however, 
these  quaint,  old-world  people  are  in  the  majority 
of  cases  still  very  poor,  and  but  for  this  home 


150  WOOL 

employment  would  often  be  in  dire  straits.  When 
the  fishing  fails  and  the  harvest  is  unfruitful,  they 
turn  with  more  than  ordinary  assiduity  to  their 
closely-preserved  textile  industry,  and  it  is  then 
that  the  hum  of  the  spinning-wheel  and  the  whirl 
of  the  shuttle  is  heard  with  unceasing  persistency 
in  their  lonely  island  cottages. 

The  first  essential  in  the  making  of  these  beauti- 
ful tweeds  is  that  the  wool  shall  be  home-grown 
and  of  beautiful  texture.  After  it  has  been  thor- 
oughly cleansed,  the  crofters  dye  it  in  a  rather 
crude  but  serviceable  dye-pot.  Vegetable  dyes 
are  principally  used,  the  necessary  herbs  being 
secured  from  the  surrounding  hillsides  and  from 
rock  vegetation.  Hand-dyeing  is,  of  course,  one 
of  the  principal  processes  in  the  manufacture,  and 
the  mixing  of  the  various  colours  requires  both 
skill  and  experience.  The  recipes  for  these  colours 
and  the  blending  are  jealously-guarded  secrets 
which  are  handed  down  from  one  generation  to 
another.  After  the  wool  is  thoroughly  dyed  and 
dried,  it  is  spun,  warped,  woven,  milled,  and 
cleaned  entirely  by  hand.  Both  the  spinning- 
wheels  and  the  hand-looms  used  are  of  antique 
design,  but  even  if  modern  improvements  were 
introduced,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  present  results 
could  in  any  way  be  improved  upon.  The  work 
in  connection  with  this  industry  is  carried  out 


EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION    151 

principally  by  the  women  and  children,  but  when 
the  fishing  season  is  a  failure,  as  it  often  is,  the 
men  also  employ  their  time  by  weaving. 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  genuine  Harris  and 
other  home-spun  materials  is  the  pleasant  and 
homely  smell  which  is  thrown  off  from  the  cloth, 
and  which  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  in- 
stead of  coal  the  crofters  burn  peat  which  is 
secured  from  the  neighbouring  marshes,  with  the 
result  that  the  peat  fumes  permeate  the  material 
during  the  process  of  manufacture.  The  tweeds 
are  most  popular  with  all  classes  of  sportsmen, 
and  for  golfing,  walking,  cycling,  motoring,  moun- 
taineering, and  other  outdoor  sports  they  are 
unrivalled.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  they  are 
entirely  hand-made,  they  contain  peculiar  prop- 
erties which  make  them  cool  to  wear  in  summer 
and  warm  in  winter,  and  as  healthy  wearing 
apparel  they  have  been  highly  recommended  by 
eminent  medical  authorities.  The  natural  grease 
of  the  wool  is  retained  in  the  finished  material, 
and  this  conduces  to  make  the  tweed  both  water- 
proof and  damp-resisting.  An  old-standing  com- 
plaint against  home-spuns  was  that  imperfections 
were  numerous,  but  the  present-day  crofter  has 
now  overcome  this  difficulty,  and  the  pieces  which 
are  turned  out  are  practically  free  of  defects. 

But  real,  first-class  woollen  clothing,  such  as 


152  WOOL 

these  home-spuns  are,  is  a  distinct  luxury,  and 
there  are  millions  of  people  who  cannot  afford  to 
pay  its  price.  This  being  the  case,  a  great  industry 
has  grown  up  devoted  entirely  to  supplying  a  cloth 
which  will  accommodate  itself  to  the  more  slender 
purses,  and  made  up — or  "tailored"  as  it  is  gen- 
erally spoken  of  in  the  trade — it  is  generally  to  be 
found  hanging  with  lavish  display  in  the  windows 
of  our  big  ready-made  clothing  establishments. 
The  class  of  cloth  to  which  we  refer  has  been 
designated  by  those  in  the  trade  as  "shoddy," 
although  it  must  not  by  any  means  be  supposed 
that  the  word  implies  an  article  altogether  worth- 
less and  to  be  despised.  Shoddy,  like  better-class 
cloths,  has  an  almost  infinitude  of  grades:  some  of 
it  is  of  that  wastrel  kind  which  will  "bag"  at  the 
knees  after  the  first  day's  wear,  or  shrivel  up  to 
nothing  after  the  first  shower  of  rain;  but  the  best 
class  of  it  is  only  one  or  two  removes  from  the  real 
thing,  and  commands  a  ready  sale  among  those 
who  cannot  afford  the  best,  but  must  have  some- 
thing which  will  "look  and  wear  well."  This  big 
cloth-manufacturing  industry  has  grown  up  chiefly 
in  and  around  the  towns  of  Dewsbury,  Batley, 
Heckmondwike,  Ossett,  and  Morley  in  Yorkshire, 
and  some  idea  of  its  magnitude  can  be  gathered 
from  the  fact  that  it  employs  between  four  and 
five  thousand  persons,  and  involves  an  average 


EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION    153 

consumption  of  rag  wool  of  200,000,000  Ibs,  per 
annum. 

This  rag  wool  and  shoddy  industry  stands 
altogether  apart  from  what  is  known  as  the  "Brad- 
ford trade,"  and  has  its  own  special  trade  centres 
and  trade  regulations.  It  has,  for  instance,  in 
Dewsbury  its  own  properly  organised  Rag  Ex- 
change, which  is  as  important  in  its  way  as  the 
Exchange  in  Coleman  Street,  London,  is  to  the 
workers  in  new  wool  in  the  best  worsted  and 
woollen  towns.  To  this  Rag  Exchange  flock  all 
the  makers  of  the  lower-class  goods,  and  the 
competition  which  takes  place  is  extraordinarily 
keen.  The  rags  and  waste,  which  are  graded  with 
surprising  exactitude,  will  fetch  anything  from  a 
halfpenny  to  a  shilling  a  pound,  the  latter  figure 
being  not  far  behind  that  of  some  of  the  raw  wool 
sold  on  the  London  Wool  Exchange.  So  great  is 
the  demand  for  these  rags  that  foreign  countries, 
as  well  as  the  British  Isles,  are  scoured  for  all 
kinds  of  cast-off  clothing  and  oddments.  Russian 
stockings,  it  may  be  noted,  are  particularly  sought 
after,  realising  as  they  do  something  like  5%s.  per 
cwt.  The  amount  of  rags  imported  greatly  varies 
from  year  to  year,  but  will  average,  perhaps, 
something  like  50,000  or  60,000  tons  per  annum. 
In  1891,  however,  as  much  as  370,000  tons  was 
brought  into  England  from  places  abroad. 


154  WOOL 

When  dusted,  sorted,  ground  up,  and  oiled 
ready  for  the  manufacturer,  the  rags  are  divided 
up  into  various  grades,  and  known  as  mungo, 
shoddy,  extract,  flocks,  and  wastes  of  various 
kinds.  With  some  of  these  classes  of  goods  is 
mixed  new  raw  wool  in  varying  quantities,  this, 
of  course,  having  a  great  deal  to  do  with  quality 
and  price.  The  range  of  articles  produced  from 
rags,  as  pointed  out,  may  include  anything  be- 
tween the  cheapest  thing  on  the  market  and  the 
best  woollen  goods,  but  the  manufactures  of  the 
"Heavy  Woollen  District"  to  which  we  have 
alluded  also  includes  good  Army  and  Navy  and 
police  cloths,  pilots,  Devons,  beavers,  feltings, 
baizes,  druggets,  and  rugs. 

It  is  estimated,  says  the  "Wool  Year  Book," 
that  woollen  cloth  loses,  in  the  apparently  endless 
cycle  of  transmutation  of  wear  and  re-manufac- 
ture, about  40  per  cent,  of  its  weight,  so  that  the 
average  fibre  only  completes  about  three  cycles 
of  re-manufacture.  The  same  authority  thus 
concisely  gives  an  outline  of  what  is  done  in  the 
way  of  preparation  for  manufacture  in  the  cases 
of  mungo  and  shoddy.  The  processes  consist  of 
dusting,  sorting,  seaming,  oiling,  and  grinding. 
Dusting  is  largely  a  hygienic  process.  Sorting  is 
in  accordance  with  either  quality  or  colour,  or 
both.  Seaming  refers  to  the  taking  out  of  every 


EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION    155 

little  bit  of  cotton  thread,  which  otherwise  would 
cause  a  bad  spin  or  a  "flecked"  piece.  Without 
injuring  the  wool,  the  cotton  is  burned  out  of  a 
mixture  cloth  by  means  of  a  sulphuric  acid  or 
other  chemical  process.  Oiling  is  to  ensure  a 
gliding  of  the  fibres  on  one  another  rather  than 
rupture,  which  would  mean  a  poor  quality  of 
spinning  material.  Grinding  refers  to  the  teasing- 
out — the  violently  dragging  apart — of  the  fibres, 
so  that  as  much  of  the  original  length  of  the  raw 
material  as  possible  shall  be  retained. 

Among  the  mill-hands  themselves  in  the  Dews- 
bury  and  Batley  district  the  description  "mungo" 
is  used  more  often  than  any  other  as  the  generic 
name  for  the  stuff  produced  from  rags,  and  the 
name  might  puzzle  many  people  who  did  not  know 
the  story  of  its  origin.  It  is  told  that  in  the  early 
days  of  the  trade,  a  keen,  hard-fisted  Yorkshire 
factory  master  in  the  rag  region  had  set  his  spin- 
ner the  very  difficult  task  of  trying  to  spin  some- 
thing which  was  little  better  than  food  for  the 
furnace.  The  spinner,  after  several  efforts,  went 
to  his  master  and  told  him  it  was  impossible  to 
get  the  stuff  to  hold  together  sufficiently  to  make 
it  into  threads.  But  the  blunt  old  Yorkshireman 
would  not  hear  of  failure,  and  sent  the  spinner 
back  to  his  work  with  the  injunction,  "It  mun  go; 
it  mun  go!"  ringing  in  his  ears.  Ever  afterwards, 


156  WOOL 

it  is  said,  the  term  "mungo"  was  used  by  the 
trade  for  this  particular  kind  of  stuff. 

To  those  who  might  be  a  little  squeamish 
about  wearing  this  cheap  production,  on  hygienic 
grounds,  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  cleansing 
and  purifying  processes  through  which  woollen 
rags  must  go  before  being  fit  for  re-manufacture 
can  hardly  fail  to  stamp  out  any  possibility  of  in- 
fection when  made  up  into  clothes.  At  all  events, 
the  towns  where  the  rags  are  collected  and  han- 
dled seem  to  be  quite  free  from  such  injurious 
effects  to  health,  and  if  there  is  little  possibility 
of  disease  in  the  first  instance,  there  would  seem 
to  be  very  little  indeed  after  the  stuff  has  gone 
through  a  number  of  disinfecting  processes,  one 
of  which  is  the  chemical  bath  already  alluded  to. 
The  death-rate  in  the  towns  where  the  rag  trade 
flourishes  seems  to  be  no  higher  than  in  other  in- 
dustrial centres,  and  the  Medical  Officer  of  Health 
of  Batley  cannot  find  anything  to  complain  about. 
He  says:  "It  might  readily  be  assumed  that  per- 
sons employed  in  the  rag  trade  would  frequently 
contract  infectious  diseases,  owing  to  the  danger 
of  handling  rags  which  come  into  the  town  from 
all  parts  of  the  world.  Such,  however,  is  not  the 
case.  I  have  found  no  reason  to  suspect  that  any 
outbreaks  of  infectious  disease  have  been  caused 
through  handling  rags  during  the  period  I  have 


EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION    157 

been  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  and  I  believe  such 
has  been  the  experience  of  my  predecessors.  No 
particular  occupation  in  Batley  appears  to  have 
a  deleterious  influence  upon  the  public  health." 

In  addition  to  employing  a  large  number  of 
people  in  the  making  of  the  cloth,  the  rag  trade 
has  brought  into  being  a  whole  army  of  clothiers, 
and  found  employment  for  thousands  of  tailors 
and  their  assistants.  The  trade  was  formerly,  no 
doubt,  looked  down  upon,  and  in  all  probability 
the  stereotyped  cutting  and  throwing  together 
of  suits  in  factories  encouraged  contempt.  But 
nowadays  a  new  idea  of  cutting  has  arisen,  and 
both  the  cloth  and  the  wearer  are  beginning  to 
earn  a  respect  hitherto  unknown.  In  the  great 
factories  of  Leeds  and  other  places  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  where  close  upon  300,000  people  are 
employed  in  the  ready-made  clothing  trade,  the 
wholesale  cutting  of  suits  by  machinery  is  being 
rapidly  replaced  by  the  making  of  "specials,"  or 
garments  cut  to  the  order  and  measurements  of 
the  individual  buyer.  This  new  trade,  which  has 
brought  into  being  again  the  expert  cutter,  is  likely 
to  have  a  great  vogue  in  the  future,  and  is  also, 
of  course,  calculated  to  revolutionise  the  dress  of 
the  working  classes.  Indeed,  a  class  much  above 
the  lower  working  class  is  coming  to  look  on  this 
method  of  production  with  favour,  for  the  Leeds 


158  WOOL 

scale  system  of  sizes,  which  is  doing  for  the  cloth- 
ing trade  what  the  American  system  of  minute 
and  accurate  measurements  did  for  the  boot  trade 
some  years  ago,  is,  combined  with  up-to-date  cut- 
ting, making  it  possible  for  anyone  to  get  a  stylish 
suit  perfectly  fitted.  Thousands  of  suits  ordered 
from  local  tailors  in  the  provinces  are  now  cut  and 
finished  at  one  of  the  great  factories  which  make 
a  specialty  of  the  bespoke  business,  and  "ready  for 
service"  clothes  of  the  highest  class  and  made  on 
the  same  principle  can  now  be  purchased  at  some  of 
the  largest  and  most  fashionable  stores  in  London. 
While  the  clothes  are  stock-sized,  there  is  nothing 
of  the  "slop-shop"  about  them,  and  those  people 
who  have  no  time  for  making  appointments  with 
tailors,  and  who  find  the  business  of  fitting  and 
"trying-on"  a  nuisance,  are  beginning  more  and 
more  to  copy  a  practice  which  is  greatly  in  favour 
across  the  Atlantic,  and  does  not  by  any  means 
preclude  the  possibility  of  dressing  well. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  on  the  whole  the  dis- 
covery of  the  means  of  pulling  rags  and  re-making 
the  fibre  into  clothes  has  had  a  great  and  bene- 
ficial influence.  For  one  thing,  it  has  enormously 
augmented  the  world's  supply  of  raw  wool,  and 
that  in  itself  is  a  great  boon  when  it  is  considered 
that  the  natural  wool  clip  does  not  exceed  2%  Ibs. 
per  head.  It  has  to  be  remembered,  again,  that 


EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION    159 

this  "low- woollen"  trade  has  been  the  means  of 
keeping  the  price  of  clothing  within  reasonable 
bounds,  and  that  during  the  hundred  years  the 
trade  has  been  established  millions  of  people, 
protected  from  the  elements  by  an  article  so 
cheap  and  serviceable,  have  had  cause  to  bless  the 
enterprise  and  skill  of  those  who  made  it  a  busi- 
ness to  recover  and  transform  this  despised  waste 
product  of  a  former  day. 

It  should  not  be  assumed  from  what  has  been 
already  written  that  cloth  for  men's  suits  is  the 
sole  production  of  the  "shoddy"  districts.  There 
are  millions  of  yards  of  what  the  French  euphe- 
mistically call  "renascence  cloth"  woven  in  and 
about  Morley  for  the  ladies*  dress  trade,  and  the 
material  finds  a  ready  market  everywhere.  Much 
of  the  cheap  stuff  to  be  picked  up  on  the  bargain 
counters  during  the  drapery  sales,  and  suspected 
of  being  of  German  origin,  is  in  reality  made  in 
Yorkshire,  and  is  generally  composed  of  re-manu- 
factured woollen  rags  mixed  with  cotton.  A  full 
dress  piece  of  5l/z  yards  of  this  kind  of  material 
can  be  bought  for  2s.  6d.  or  2s.  9d.,  and  the  quality 
and  appearance  are  such  as  Germany  cannot 
possibly  equal  at  the  price.  It  seems  impossible 
on  the  face  of  it,  but  both  the  manufacturer  and 
dealer  will  contrive  to  get  a  very  substantial 
profit  out  of  the  goods.  It  is  a  case  of  enormous 


160  WOOL 

production  and  a  quick  turn-over,  just  as  the 
cheap  tailor  is  able  to  sell  a  suit  for  half  a  guinea 
and  still  make  a  profit.  In  the  rag  wool  district 
he  is  able  to  buy  as  much  cloth  as  will  make  a 
suit  of  clothes  for  3s.  6d.,  and  this  he  can  have 
made  up  for  2s.  in  the  big  clothing  factories. 

From  the  foregoing  it  can  be  readily  assumed 
that  there  are  nowadays  practically  no  by-prod- 
ucts in  connection  with  wool  itself — although 
there  are  a  few  created  in  the  course  of  manufac- 
ture— for  high  prices  of  the  raw  material  have 
made  it  worth  while  to  deal  drastically  with  all 
woollen  waste.  At  one  time  old-fashioned  people 
did  not  imagine  that  a  bed  could  be  a  bed  unless 
it  had  a  good  foundation  of  woollen  flocks,  but 
nowadays  a  much  cheaper  substitute  is  commonly 
used. 

With  regard  to  beds  of  flocks,  it  is  interesting  to 
recall  a  curious  incident  in  connection  with  the 
great  "cotton  panic"  which  resulted  in  a  famine 
in  the  raw  material  in  the  North  of  England 
owing  to  the  American  Civil  War.  So  badly  was 
cotton  needed  that  certain  ingenious  persons 
conceived  the  notion  of  going  round  to  the  houses 
of  the  poorer  folk  and  offering  them  attractive 
prices  for  their  beds  of  cotton  flocks.  Many 
respectable  fortunes  were  made  in  this  way,  and 
the  vendors  were  well  satisfied  with  their  bargains 


EXTREMES  OF  WOOLLEN  PRODUCTION    161 

seeing  that  the  extra  prices  gave  them  the  oppor- 
tunity of  indulging  themselves,  for  the  first  time 
in  their  lives,  in  the  luxury  of  woollen  flocks, 
which  they  promptly  substituted  for  the  vege- 
table fibre  upon  which  they  had  previously  slept. 


CHAPTER  XH 

THE  VARIED   USES  OF  WOOLLEN 

IT  will  have  been  noticed  how  tenaciously 
special  classes  of  goods  produced  in  the  wool 
industry  cling  to  certain  localities,  and  no  doubt, 
if  we  could  trace  them,  there  are  ample  reasons 
why  these  trades  should  have  begun  and  flourished 
where  they  did.  Often  the  reasons  were  personal, 
and  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  suitability 
of  climate  or  geographical  conditions,  and  in  these 
instances  it  will  sometimes  be  seen  that  industries 
have  waned  when  a  less  gifted  and  energetic  gen- 
eration have  grown  up,  while  nothing,  perhaps, 
now  remains  but  a  name  to  mark  an  early  great- 
ness. It  says  much  for  the  men  engaged  in  the 
various  sections  of  the  trade  that  the  old  desig- 
nations remain  in  the  great  majority  of  cases. 
Bradford  is  still  the  great  world  centre  for  wor- 
steds; Huddersfield  remains  the  home  of  high- 
class  cloths;  Leeds  is  unassailable  in  the  whole- 
sale clothing  trade;  and  Halifax  and  Dundee  are 
famous  for  the  production  of  carpets.  Rochdale 
holds  its  former  advantage  in  Army  and  Navy 

162 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       163 

flannels;  Witney  still  maintains  a  fair  trade  in 
blankets;  the  West  of  England  was  long  known 
for  broad-cloths;  and  various  parts  of  Scotland 
and  Ireland  hold  an  unquestioned  sway  in  home- 
spuns and  tweeds  of  various  sorts;  and  often  parts 
of  the  country  are  familiarly  known  for  special- 
ities which  have  in  many  cases  borne  their  names 
for  centuries. 

Many  of  the  places  mentioned  have  been  spoken 
of  already  in  this  book,  but  there  are  certain 
others  which  are  deserving  of  note  for  the  high 
places  they  hold  in  the  world  of  woollens.  One 
has,  for  instance,  only  to  recall  the  names  of 
Leicester  and  Nottingham  to  be  made  aware  of 
the  large  accession  of  wealth  and  fame  which  has 
been  brought  to  those  towns  by  the  modern 
manufacture  of  hosiery.  Leicester  is  to-day  the 
great  seat  of  the  English  hosiery  trade.  It  em- 
ploys close  upon  30,000  persons  in  that  trade,  if 
the  yarn  spinners  are  included,  and  individual 
mills  are  known  where  3,000  people  are  engaged 
in  the  work.  Its  progress  is  no  doubt  due  in  part 
to  its  advantageous  situation  as  a  railway  centre, 
and  also  to  the  readiness  with  which  its  inhab- 
itants have  taken  up  the  various  inventions  for 
knitting,  and  also  improved  on  the  work  of  out- 
siders by  discovering  the  secret  of  "seamless  hose" 
and  other  productions  which  have  made  the  town 


164  WOOL 

famous.  Nottingham,  however,  is  really  the 
birthplace  of  hosiery.  It  was  to  Nottingham  that 
Hargreaves  and  Arkwright  went  with  their  in- 
ventions, the  spinning  jenny  and  the  water  frame, 
and  it  was  a  Nottinghamshire  man  who  conferred 
a  boon  on  humanity  by  inventing  the  stocking 
frame. 

The  hosiery  trade,  which  was  born  amid  diffi- 
culty and  disappointment  and  developed  in  the 
face  of  much  violence  on  the  part  of  the  displaced 
hand-knitters,  is  now  most  prosperous,  and  one  of 
the  best  paid  in  the  country.  The  chief  hosiery 
centre  in  Scotland  is  at  Hawick,  but  there  is  also 
a  large  amount  produced  in  Glasgow,  while  Dum- 
fries has  specialised  in  the  knitted-glove  trade. 
There  is  also  a  good  trade  done  in  Irish  hosiery, 
which  is  hand-knitted  by  the  peasants  of  Done- 
gal. The  Scotch  tweed  industry  is  another  flour- 
ishing trade  which  swallows  up  a  large  amount 
of  wool,  Galashiels,  Selkirk,  and  Peebles  taking 
a  big  proportion  of  the  30,000,000  Ibs.  which  is 
annually  required  for  the  manufacture  of  that  ex- 
cellent cloth  from  which  smart  suitings  are  made. 
The  Cheviot  sheep  of  the  Lowlands,  numerous 
as  they  are,  do  not  produce  more  than  about 
one-sixth  of  the  wool  required  by  the  manu- 
facturers, who  make  up  the  deficiency  by  pur- 
chasing largely  of  the  cross-bred  wools  of  New 


THE  VAEIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       165 

Zealand  and  the  product  of  the  Cheviot  flocks 
which  have  survived  early  settlement  in  the 
Falkland  Islands.  It  is  stated  that  about  12,000 
people  are  engaged  in  this  branch  of  the  industry, 
and  that  the  superior  cloth  they  produce  will, 
when  made  up  into  suits,  represent  a  value  of 
about  £12,000,000. 

Ireland,  also,  does  a  fairly  large  and  increasing 
trade  in  woollens  and  tweeds,  although  it  must  be 
said  that  the  industry,  speaking  generally,  has 
been  much  hampered  in  the  past  for  want  of 
capital.  There  are  a  few  large  and  up-to-date 
mills,  but  the  majority  are  small  factories  em- 
ploying less  than  a  hundred  hands  each,  and  are 
chiefly  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  flannel, 
blankets,  heavy  serges,  shawls,  and  travelling- 
rugs.  There  is  also  a  considerable  peasant  indus- 
try, chiefly  in  the  north  and  west,  these  goods, 
chiefly  hand-spun  and  hand-woven,  having  of 
late  years  been  in  much  demand. 

The  West  of  England  trade,  so  famous  in  an 
earlier  day,  is  now  completely  overshadowed  by 
that  of  Bradford,  although  from  that  side  of  the 
country  still  comes  some  of  the  finest  and  most 
durable  cloth  made  in  the  world.  The  broad- 
cloth, so  prized  by  our  grandfathers,  was  long  ago 
beaten  out  of  the  field  by  Yorkshire  worsteds,  and 
the  trade  of  Gloucestershire  and  Wiltshire  was 


166  WOOL 

whittled  down  to  very  small  proportions.  In 
Somersetshire,  however,  where  worsted  has  al- 
ways been  in  use  for  the  making  of  serges,  the 
manufacturers  quickly  adapted  themselves  to  the 
change  in  fashion,  with  the  result  that  in  places 
like  Wellington  the  trade  has  been  able  to  survive 
on  a  more  respectable  scale.  The  excellence  of  the 
work  done  in  Somerset  still  attracts  many  of  the 
best  English  Government  and  Colonial  contracts, 
while  in  Gloucestershire  are  yet  made  those  fine 
scarlet  cloths  worn  by  hunting  men,  as  well  as 
cloths  for  naval  and  military  uniforms  and  liveries. 
It  is  interesting  to  recall,  also,  that  it  was  at 
Wellington  that  the  first  woollen  khaki  was  made, 
and  that  at  the  present  time  a  speciality  is  made 
of  knitting  cloth  for  puttees.  The  old  town  of 
Wilton  in  the  West  Country  still  makes  the  fam- 
ous carpet  of  that  name,  and  of  recent  years  local 
trade  has  been  stimulated  by  the  introduction  by 
Nottingham  firms  of  the  machine-made  lace 
industry. 

A  little  outside  the  industrial  circle  of  the  West 
Country  is  to  be  found  the  small  Oxfordshire 
town  of  Witney,  which  to  this  day  makes  the 
blankets  for  which  it  was  famous  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  if  not  before.  The  blanket,  of 
course,  was  made  much  earlier  than  that  period, 
it  being  authoritatively  stated  that  the  article 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       167 

got  its  name  from  Thomas  Blanket,  a  Bristol 
weaver,  who  produced  "a  fabric  of  wool  with  a 
well-raised  nap"  in  1320.  Witney  was  identified 
with  the  wool  trade  more  than  a  century  before 
that  date,  for  it  is  on  record  that  Henry  III., 
while  on  a  visit  to  a  certain  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
who  had  a  palace  there,  "spent  twenty  pounds 
upon  his  wardrobe,"  although  we  are  not  told 
precisely  upon  what  articles  the  money  was  laid 
out.  It  is  understood,  however,  that  the  royal 
purchases  were  of  articles  produced  by  the  woollen 
manufacturers  then  settled  in  the  place.  Nowa- 
days, of  course,  Witney  does  not  make  a  tithe  of 
the  blankets  put  upon  the  market,  but  the  town, 
despite  the  pretensions  of  its  big  rivals  in  York- 
shire and  elsewhere,  can  still  command  the  highest 
prices  for  what  it  produces.  The  Witney  manu- 
facturers have  more  than  once  gone  into  court  to 
prevent  the  name  being  used  by  outsiders,  and  on 
one  occasion  they  gained  a  very  notable  victory 
over  Yorkshire  traders  who  contended  that  the 
name  was  a  generic  one,  and  could  not  be  wholly 
appropriated  by  the  town  which  bears  that  name. 
Mention  should  be  made  here  of  the  woollen 
goods  manufactured  for  the  Army  and  Navy, 
because  many  great  mills  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  are  kept  running  all  the  year  round  on 
these  contracts.  Woollen  cloths,  it  should  be 


168  WOOL 

remembered,  form  the  bulk  of  both  Army  and 
Navy  fabrics,  and  the  authorities  are  exceedingly 
strict  as  regards  both  the  appearance  and  qual- 
ity of  the  goods  manufactured  for  pur  soldiers 
and  sailors.  Great  quantities  of  these  cloths  are 
manufactured  in  and  about  Leeds,  Dewsbury, 
and  Batley,  but  the  best  class  of  uniforms  are 
made  in  the  West  of  England,  which  has  always 
had  pre-eminence  in  this  country  for  dyeing  and 
finishing  the  highest  class  Army  cloths.  Rochdale 
has  long  made  a  speciality  of  the  flannel  from 
which  soldiers'  shirts  and  sailors'  clothes  are  made, 
and  no  other  town  has  yet  equalled  the  quality 
and  finish  of  the  famous  "silver-greys"  and 
"navy-blues"  it  produces.  The  history  of  many 
of  the  firms  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  flannel 
in  the  town  goes  back  three  or  four  hundred  years, 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether,  from  the  time  Army 
contracting  first  began,  local  mills  have  ever  been 
without  Government  contracts.  Rochdale  is  one 
of  the  oldest  woollen  centres  in  the  country,  and, 
unlike  so  many  other  Lancashire  towns,  has 
shown  no  desire  to  have  its  ancient  trade  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  newer  industry  of  cotton.  At 
one  time  its  main  streets  were  the  rendezvous 
of  the  best-known  wool  dealers  in  the  North  of 
England,  and  it  still  retains  on  its  civic  coat  of 
arms  and  in  the  names  of  some  of  its  older  hostel- 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       169 

ries  a  reminder  of  the  days  when  it  held  a  specially 
proud  position  in  the  woollen  trade  of  the  country. 
Lancashire  at  one  time  had  many  towns  devoted 
more  or  less  to  woollen,  and  as  late  as  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century  woollen  manufacture  was 
put  down  as  the  chief  industry  in  the  county.  But 
the  County  Palatine  seemed  to  take  a  keener 
interest  in  cotton  from  that  time  onward,  as  is 
clearly  shown  by  the  way  in  which  the  natives 
put  their  inventive  genius  at  the  service  of  the 
younger  industry,  and  there  seemed  to  grow 
up  almost  a  tacit  agreement  between  the  two 
neighbouring  counties  of  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire that  cotton  should  flourish  on  one  side  of 
the  Pennines  and  woollen  on  the  other.  Whether 
Lancashire  deliberately  pushed  out  woollen  in  fa- 
vour of  cotton,  or  Yorkshire  by  dogged  tenacity 
and  perseverance  gradually  succeeded  in  attract- 
ing the  bulk  of  the  trade  in  wool  to  itself,  is 
not  a  very  profitable  speculation  at  this  time  of 
day,  but  the  circumstances  in  which  both  trades 
were  built  up  have  many  curious  and  inexplicable 
features.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  two  counties 
were  able  to  rear  huge  textile  businesses  side  by 
side,  and  while  the  trades  substantially  differed  in 
kind,  they  became,  as  time  went  on,  remarkably 
friendly  and  inter-dependent.  This  was  strik- 
ingly shown  a  few  years  ago  when  a  big  cotton 


170  WOOL 

strike  in  Lancashire  had  very  disastrous  effects 
on  a  great  portion  of  the  Yorkshire  trade — that 
section  which  relies  more  and  more  upon  cotton 
for  "unions"  and  other  mixture  cloths. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  West  Riding 
generally,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Bradford  itself, 
the  pivot  upon  which  the  world's  trade  in  wool, 
manufactured  and  unmanufactured,  turns  to-day, 
owes  its  great  and  influential  position  to  the 
enterprise  and  genius  of  a  succession  of  brilliant 
inventors  and  industrial  organisers.  So  far  as  can 
be  seen,  the  city  had  no  special  natural  advantage 
over  any  other  town  in  Yorkshire — neither  in 
coal,  water-power,  humidity  of  atmosphere,  nor  in 
any  other  essential  can  it  claim  superiority  over 
its  neighbours — and  therefore  we  must  look  else- 
where for  the  secret  of  its  dominating  position  as 
a  marketing  and  manufacturing  centre. 

The  town  undoubtedly  dates  its  rise  from  the 

time  the  machine  supplanted  manual  labour  for 

the  purpose  of  combing  wool.    Before  the  middle 

of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  wool 

trade  in  Yorkshire  may  be  said  to  have  been 

^in  a  rather  backward  state.    True,  a  great  many 

[people  were  employed  in  it,  but  the  progress  of 

ithe  trade  was  hampered  owing  to  the  fact  that 

invention  had  not  kept  pace  in  every  department. 

The  preparatory  stages  lagged  behind  the  spin- 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN      171 

ning  and  weaving — at  least  this  was  so  in  so  far  as 
worsted  was  concerned.  Hand-carding  had  been 
superseded  by  machine-carding  in  the  woollen 
mills,  and  spinning  had  made  a  great  forward 
move,  but  for  long  years  after  the  spinning-frame 
had  been  invented  the  slow  and  laborious  process 
of  wool-combing  by  hand  was  in  vogue.  Indeed, 
it  was  not  until  about  1830  that  means  were  found 
to  comb  wool  by  machinery,  and  the  innovation 
was  even  then  stoutly  resented,  the  introduction 
of  power  machinery  being  attended  by  some  of 
the  most  serious  industrial  riots  the  country  has 
known. 

The  invention,  however,  proved  the  turning 
point  in  the  fortunes  of  Bradford.  Instead  of 
remaining  an  agglomeration  of  villages,  it  rapidly 
took  upon  itself  the  features  of  an  important 
town,  and  other  places  in  the  West  Riding  also 
began  to  wax  apace.  The  old  domestic  system, 
interesting  as  it  was,  and  representing  the  indus- 
try on  its  more  human  side,  speedily  vanished, 
and  in  its  place  rose  a  great  factory  system  which 
brought  fortunes  for  the  manufacturers  and  a 
prosperity  to  the  workers  hitherto  unknown. 
With  the  introduction  of  the  jacquard  and  other 
inventions  the  finest  of  cloths  began  to  be  pro- 
duced, and,  a  lucky  chance  bringing  royal  patron- 
age for  a  special  Huddersfield  worsted  pattern, 


172  WOOL 

the  trade  went  up  by  leaps  and  bounds,  to  the 
great  detriment  of  the  West  Country  smooth 
broad-cloth  trade. 

Side  by  side  with  the  genuine  worsted  trade  the 
woollen  shoddy  industry  of  Dewsbury  and  Batley 
was  developing,  and  in  1839  still  further  success 
was  registered  by  the  opening  up  by  two  famous 
Bradford  firms — Sir  Titus  Salt,  of  Saltaire,  and 
John  Foster,  of  Queensbury — of  the  trade  in  alpaca 
and  mohair  goods.  The  progress  of  Bradford  can 
easily  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  a  place  of 
only  about  5,000  inhabitants;  in  1830  the  num- 
ber had  jumped  to  over  43,000;  while  in  1850 
the  population  numbered  over  100,000.  From 
only  one  mill  in  1800  the  number  of  factories 
rose  to  129  in  1850,  and  the  hands  employed  had 
risen  to  over  33,000.  At  this  same  date — 1850 — 
there  were  in  England  493  worsted  factories  with 
864,874  spindles  and  32,617  power-looms,  while 
the  number  of  operatives  was  78,915,  or  about 
double  the  number  there  were  ten  years  earlier. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  majority  of  factories, 
spindles,  and  looms  mentioned  in  the  return  were 
in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  and  were  en- 
gaged in  what  came  to  be  known  the  world  over 
as  the  "Bradford  trade." 

Since  that  date  the  progress  of  Bradford  has 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       173 

been  steady  but  continuous,  until  now  it  boasts 
a  population  of  over  290,000,  and  has  attained  to 
the  proud  dignity  of  a  city.  At  the  present  day 
Bradford,  besides  doing  the  bulk  of  the  home 
trade  in  wool,  dominates  the  London  sales  of 
imported  wool.  It  is  estimated  that  four-fifths 
of  all  the  wool  imported  into  England  goes  to 
Bradford  to  be  combed  into  tops  or  spun  into 
yarn.  Nowadays,  the  city  does  not  manufacture 
a  great  deal  of  the  wool  it  handles;  it  exports  very 
extensively  both  in  the  tops  and  in  the  spun  yarn. 
The  home  trade  takes  a  fair  amount,  but  large 
quantities  have  hitherto  gone  to  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  Germany  and  France  being  two  of  the 
largest  buyers. 

These  tops  are  very  popular  with  the  manu- 
facturers, as  there  is  no  washing  of  the  wool  to  be 
done,  and  the  fibre  is  in  a  sufficiently  advanced 
state  to  allow  of  it  being  handled  straight  away. 
When  ready  for  the  spinner,  the  tops  contain 
3  per  cent,  of  oil  and  1634  Per  cent,  of  moisture. 
At  least,  that  is  the  amount  of  water  that  they 
ought  to  contain,  and  if  it  is  exceeded  the  munici- 
pal testing  office,  or  Conditioning  House  as  it  is 
called,  will  issue  a  certificate  which  is  binding  on 
both  seller  and  buyer,  so  that  the  former  must 
credit  the  latter  with  an  amount  of  money  equiva- 
lent to  the  excess  of  water  that  is  present  in  the  top. 


174  WOOL 

In  addition  to  cloth  yarns,  Bradford  has  many 
mills  running  exclusively  on  yarns  for  the  hosiery 
trade.  Moreover,  along  with  a  huge  and  highly 
specialised  wool-combing  business — this  trade  be- 
ing now  very  largely  done  on  a  commission  basis — 
Bradford  is  the  headquarters  of  a  dyers'  combine 
which  is  the  most  important  association  of  its 
kind  in  existence. 

Alongside  the  development  of  the  wool  industry 
there  have  grown  up  many  kindred  institutions  of 
which  Bradford  to-day  is  justly  proud.  These 
include  the  famous  Bradford  Technical  College, 
which  boasts  a  complete  plant  for  the  washing, 
carding,  combing,  spinning,  weaving,  dyeing,  and 
finishing  of  textiles,  and  is  staffed  by  the  ablest 
experts  in  the  country;  an  Exchange  which  is 
famous  both  for  its  transactions  and  its  personnel 
(many  members  being  able  to  trace  back  their 
commercial  genealogy  to  the  primitive  beginnings 
of  the  trade);  and  a  Conditioning  House,  which, 
though  only  established  in  1891,  bids  fair  soon  to 
have  more  extensive  dealings  than  any  other  in  the 
world.  Even  now  it  may  be  said  to  stand  first 
in  reputation,  for  its  trade  regulations  are  most 
stringently  carried  out,  so  much  so,  in  fact,  that 
its  certificates  are  adopted  without  question  not 
only  by  those  in  the  trade  in  every  part  of  the 
world,  but  also  in  the  law  courts. 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN      175 

Next  to  the  woollen  and  worsted  trades  comes 
the  trade  in  hosiery,  which  is  growing  by  leaps 
and  bounds  each  year.  The  gross  output  of  the 
industry,  which  is  largely  concerned  with  wool, 
is  now  returned  at  approximately  £10,000,000. 
Originally  the  name  was  used  to  denote  foot-wear 
exclusively,  but  now  the  term  is  applied  to  every 
variety  of  knitted  goods.  Up  to  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  stockings,  which  were  practi- 
cally the  only  form  of  hosiery  then  known,  were 
either  hand-knitted  or  cut  out  of  woven  material. 
The  latter  method  precluded  all  possibility  of 
obtaining  that  quality  of  elasticity  which  is  the 
main  advantage  in  knitted  goods. 

The  world  in  indebted  to  a  clergyman  for  the 
comfort  of  hosiery,  the  inventor  of  the  stocking- 
frame  being  the  Rev.  William  Lee,  curate  of 
Claverton,  in  Nottinghamshire.  By  means  of 
this  invention,  which  was  made  workable  in  1589, 
a  row  of  stitches  could  be  made  at  once  instead  of 
one  at  a  time.  Queen  Elizabeth  accepted  a  pair 
of  silk  stockings  from  Lee,  but  did  nothing  for 
the  inventor,  who,  in  consequence,  accepted  the 
patronage  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  and  died  in 
France  after  the  assassination  of  that  king.  After 
his  death  his  brother,  James  Lee,  established  the 
manufacture  of  hosiery  in  London,  and  in  1660 
Charles  II.  gave  a  monopoly  to  the  London  com- 


176  WOOL 

pany.  It  is  stated  that,  in  the  year  1695,  1,500 
stocking-frames  had  been  set  up  in  the  Metropolis, 
but  the  industry  was  gradually  removed  to  the 
Midland  counties.  In  the  year  1714  there  were 
8,000  stocking-frames  at  Nottingham.  These  had 
increased  to  11,400  in  1753,  when  the  London 
company's  monopoly  was  ended  by  Parliament, 
and  to  over  20,000  by  the  end  of  the  century.  The 
task  of  comparison  is  not,  however,  a  simple  one, 
owing  to  the  increase  in  capacity  of  the  frames, 
but  the  available  statistics  show  that  by  the  year 
1844  there  were  over  48,000  stocking-frames  at 
Nottingham. 

The  original  machine  produced  merely  a  straight 
piece  of  plain-knitted  fabric,  but  by  the  method 
of  transferring  stitches  to  other  needles  a  means 
was  discovered  of  "fashioning"  the  material 
produced — that  is,  of  so  altering  the  width  as  to 
shape  the  leg,  heel,  and  foot  of  the  stocking. 

The  inventions  of  ribbed  and  seamless  hose 
came  later.  The  machine  on  which  ribbed  hose 
was  first  made  was  the  invention  of  a  Derbyshire 
farmer  named  Jedediah  Strutt,  an  ancestor  of  the 
,  present  Lord  Belper.  This  notable  improvement 
|  consisted  in  adding  to  Lee's  machine  a  second 
series  of  needles  with  an  arrangement  for  working 
them,  the  original  machine  being  capable  of  mak- 
ing only  a  plain  web.  Seamless  hosiery  was 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       177 

another  great  advance,  but  this  time  the  credit 
went  to  France.  Brunei  invented  in  1816  a  circu- 
lar knitting  frame  capable  of  producing  a  tubular 
web,  and  this  was  later  on  improved  upon  by 
Claussen,  of  Brussels.  Following  upon  this  came 
the  loop-wheel  circular  frame,  introduced  by 
Moses  Mellor,  of  Nottingham,  in  1850,  and 
Townsend's  latch  wheel  and  the  warp  machine 
marked  further  distinct  advances  in  the  progress 
of  the  industry,  and  led  to  the  introduction  of 
both  rib  work  and  fancy  stitches.  After  produc- 
ing a  seamless  "fashioned"  stocking,  the  hosiery 
manufacturers  of  Leicester  turned  their  attention 
to  glove  knitting,  and  have  made  of  this  depart- 
ment a  technical  and  commercial  success. 

Leicester  has  made  enormous  strides  in  the 
development  of  the  hosiery  trade  in  recent  years, 
and  there  are  at  least  thirty  firms  engaged  in 
hosiery  manufacture  in  Nottingham,  one  of  which 
is  the  largest  undertaking  of  the  kind  in  the  world. 
The  industry  finds  employment  for  many  thou- 
sands of  workpeople,  and  the  annual  value  of  the 
output  reaches  several  millions  sterling.  With 
regard  to  the  supply  of  raw  material,  very  little 
spinning  is  done  in  Nottingham  itself,  the  yarn 
being  obtained  either  from  the  Yorkshire  district, 
where  some  of  the  spinning  mills  are  engaged 
entirely  upon  the  spinning  of  woollen  yarns  for 


178  WOOL 

hosiery  manufacture,  or  from  France,  Germany, 
and  Belgium.  There  is  also  much  cotton  and 
silk  used  in  the  hosiery  trade.  The  cotton  yarns 
are  obtained  from  Lancashire,  though  there  are 
several  doubling  mills  in  Nottingham,  and  the 
silk  yarns  from  various  English  houses.  Hosiery 
is  also  extensively  manufactured  in  France,  Ger- 
many, and  other  Continental  countries,  and 
hosiery  factories  are  in  active  operation  in  New 
York  and  neighbouring  States. 

This  class  of  knitted  goods,  owing  to  its  looped 
formation,  gives  an  elasticity  which  is  not  possible 
in  woven  work,  and  is  suitable  for  a  thousand 
different  kinds  of  articles  of  wearing  apparel. 
Those  that  most  readily  come  to  mind  are  stock- 
ings, gloves,  shawls,  jerseys,  mufflers,  cardigan 
jackets,  caps,  and  underclothing  of  every  kind. 
Wool  is  used  for  the  best  class  of  goods,  but  cotton 
is  blended  very  extensively  in  the  cheaper  quali- 
ties, while  the  highest  class  of  fine  goods  often 
contain  a  large  amount  of  silk. 

In  the  hosiery  centres  of  England  and  Scotland 
— Hawick,  Dumfries,  Lanark,  and  Glasgow  chiefly 
representing  the  hosiery  trade  across  the  Border 
— the  conditions  of  employment  are  excellent. 
Female  labour  is  largely  employed,  and  both  men 
and  women  are  among  the  best  paid  workers  in 
the  country. 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       179 

Another  section  in  which  huge  quantities  of 
wool  are  consumed  is  the  carpet  industry.  Strictly 
speaking,  the  making  of  carpets  is  a  separate  and 
distinct  trade,  but  nevertheless  it  is  an  industry 
requiring  a  preponderance  of  wool,  although  the 
wool  is  of  a  different  class  from  that  from  which 
"woollens"  and  "worsteds"  are  made.  Carpet 
wools  are  not  so  good  as  those  used  for  making 
dress-stuffs  or  flannels,  nor  are  they  so  coarse  as 
the  common  felting  wools.  The  animal  which 
chiefly  supplies  this  wool  is  to  be  found  in  Asia 
Minor  and  places  further  east,  where  the  carpet 
industry  first  began,  but  since  the  trade  was  taken 
up  in  Great  Britain  and  machines  superseded 
hand  production,  other  kinds  of  wool  have  been 
pressed  into  service,  notably  that  from  sheep 
reared  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  and  fleeces 
from  the  hardier  breeds  in  our  own  country. 
Carpets  are  not  often  made  from  wool  throughout; 
they  are  mostly  wool-faced  with  backings  of  flax, 
jute,  or  hemp,  the  binding  thread  being  strong 
cotton.  It  is  calculated  that  the  number  of  per- 
sons employed  in  producing  machine-made  car- 
pets in  the  British  Isles  is  close  upon  20,000,  and 
that  the  work  is  carried  on  by  about  seventy 
firms,  chiefly  located  in  the  Midlands,  the  North 
of  England,  and  Scotland. 

The  place-names  in  vogue  for  the  various  kinds 


180  WOOL 

of  carpets  are  nowadays  altogether  misleading. 
One  of  the  best-known  makes  of  carpets  is,  of 
course,  Axminster,  but  it  is  generations  since 
carpets  were  made  in  the  Devonshire  town  of  that 
name.  Axminster  carpets,  indeed,  seem  to  be 
made  at  almost  any  other  place  than  Axminster, 
just  as  Kidderminster,  although  still  a  well-known 
manufacturing  centre,  turns  out  few  carpets  of 
that  name.  Kidderminster  carpets  are  now  made 
chiefly  in  Scotland,  while  Kidderminster  confines 
itself  almost  exclusively  to  Brussels,  Wilton, 
Axminster,  and  other  makes.  Similarly,  we  do 
not  get  carpets  from  Brussels,  that  class  of  carpet 
nowadays  being  very  largely  manufactured  in 
Halifax,  Rochdale,  and  other  British  northern 
towns.  Brussels  carpets  are  also  extensively 
turned  out  at  Dundee,  the  great  centre  of  the 
jute  carpet  trade.  Wilton  is  one  of  the  few  exist- 
ing places  which  actually  makes  the  carpets 
associated  with  its  name,  but  it  by  no  means 
makes  all  the  Wilton  carpets  put  upon  the  market. 
About  a  third  of  the  carpets  made  in  England  are 
exported,  Canada,  which  buys  so  largely  of  Eng- 
lish woollens,  being  the  best  customer,  and  other 
parts  of  the  British  Empire  taking  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  remainder.  Of  the  eight  million 
yards  exported  annually,  Canada  takes  well  over 
two  million. 


THE  VARIED  USES  OF  WOOLLEN       181 

Formerly,  a  large  quantity  of  wool  was  used  in 
the  manufacture  of  felt  hats,  but  in  these  days  the 
best  class  of  "bowler"  is  made  from  the  fur  of  the 
rabbit,  and  only  the  cheapest  felts  are  manufac- 
tured from  woollen  waste.  This  trade  is  mostly 
carried  on  on  the  borders  of  Lancashire  and 
Cheshire,  the  chief  centres  being  Denton  and 
Stockport.  Many  of  the  best-known  firms  can 
trace  their  histories  back  to  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, having  first  made  the  beaver  hat,  at  one 
time  so  fashionable  in  this  country. 

In  a  chapter  dealing  with  the  many  varieties  of 
wool  it  is  impossible  to  overlook  certain  fibres 
which  are  sometimes  regarded  as  hair,  but  have 
really  more  of  the  characteristics  of  wool  than  of 
hair,  and  which  in  manufactured  form  are  re- 
garded as  among  the  most  valuable  and  beautiful 
products  of  the  Bradford  trade.  Such  are  the 
hair  group  of  materials,  chief  among  which  are 
alpaca  and  mohair.  The  alpaca,  or  llama,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called,  is  a  native  of  the  Andes,  where 
it  thrives  on  pastures  about  5,000  feet  above 
sea-level.  The  long  wool  of  the  alpaca  is  soft, 
pliable,  and  elastic.  It  ranges  in  colour  anywhere 
between  white  and  black,  and  is  manufactured 
into  very  attractive  dress  and  lining  fabrics. 
Alpaca  is  usually  dyed  black,  but  mohair,  which 
is  obtained  from  the  Angora  goat,  a  native  of 


182  WOOL 

Turkey  and  Asia  Minor,  has  the  qualities  of  the 
alpaca  with  an  added  lustre,  and  can  be  dyed  to 
any  shade.  It  is  used  for  making  dress  materials 
for  ladies'  wear,  and  also  for  linings,  plushes, 
braids,  and  furnishing  fabrics.  A  large  quantity 
of  mohair  yarn  is  sent  to  the  Continent  of  Europe 
to  be  woven  there  owing  to  the  high  tariffs  on  the 
manufactured  article,  but  to  such  a  pitch  of  excel- 
lence has  the  spinning  of  mohair  yarns  been 
brought  in  this  country  that  practically  all  the 
yarns  used  by  the  foreigner  are  made  in  England. 
The  trade,  with  which  the  name  of  Sir  Titus  Salt, 
of  Saltaire,  Bradford,  is  so  closely  associated,  has 
long  been  a  flourishing  one,  and  appears  likely  to 
remain  so  now  that  the  mohair  goat  has  been 
acclimatised  in  South  Africa,  and  large  numbers 
are  being  reared  at  the  Cape. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   FUTURE   OF   WOOL 

THE  new  century  has  brought  about  changes' 
in  the  traffic  and  production  of  wool  which  are 
having  very  far-reaching  effects.  Not  only  has 
the  home  consumer,  for  economic  reasons,  begun 
to  buy  a  large  quantity  of  his  wool  in  Sydney, 
Melbourne,  and  Adelaide  instead  of  in  London, 
and  not  only  have  new  countries  entered  into 
the  field  as  manufacturers,  but  certain  industrial 
developments  have  diverted  a  large  portion  of  the 
wool  trade  into  widely  different  channels.  The 
total  weight  of  wool  used  in  these  islands  is  per- 
haps not  much  less  than  formerly.  For  some 
time  past  we  have  imported  annually  about 
600,000,000  Ibs.  of  wool  from  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  the  Cape,  the  Argentine,  and  a  few  other 
places,  and  in  addition  have  consumed  the  greater 
part  of  the  product  of  the  30,000,000  home-reared 
sheep.  In  certain  cases,  however,  its  manufacture 
is  taking  a  different  shape  and  causing  what 
amounts  to  an  upheaval  in  some  of  our  old- 
established  trades.  There  are,  however,  signs 

183 


184  WOOL 

that  the  English  manufacturer  is  ready  and  will- 
ing to  adapt  himself  to  a  new  order  of  things, 
and  therein  may  lie  his  salvation. 

A  writer  on  the  subject  in  The  Times  takes 
quite  an  optimistic  view  of  the  future.  Upon  the 
whole,  he  says,  there  never  was  a  time  when  the 
prospects  in  the  woollen  and  worsted  industry 
were  as  bright  for  those  who  have  taken  or  will 
take  the  trouble  to  equip  themselves  and  are 
prepared  to  use  up-to-date  methods  in  every 
phase  of  their  work.  Speculation  is  undoubtedly 
still  too  much  in  evidence  in  the  wool  trade,  but 
the  days  are  passing,  if  they  have  not  already 
passed,  when  gambling  in  wool  can  seriously 
impede  the  industry,  for  it  is  obvious  that  well- 
directed  and  organised  control  is  day  by  day 
becoming  more  and  more  dominant.  Again,  the 
day  is  rapidly  passing  when  businesses  may  be 
conducted  solely  for  dividend  purposes.  There  is 
wisdom  in  recognising  this,  and  in  realising  that 
no  firm  can  hope  to  score  a  lasting  success  which 
does  not  base  its  organisation  upon  a  large-minded, 
comprehensive  policy,  upon  the  introduction  of 
scientific  method  into  all  its  activities,  and  upon 
a  candid  recognition  that  it  has  fairly  and  squarely 
to  play  its  part  in  the  industrial  economy. 

Before  the  outbreak  of  the  great  European 
War,  which  caused  such  a  boom  in  every  branch 


THE  FUTURE  OF  WOOL  185 

of  the  wool  trade,  the  worsted  section  was  in  a 
fair  state,  but  the  outlook  in  the  woollen  industry 
was  not  by  any  means  rosy.  The  worsted  section 
was  doing  none  too  well  owing  to  the  inroads 
which  were  being  made  into  the  trade  by  the 
plausible  shoddy  stuffs  of  Dewsbury  and  Batley, 
to  certain  changes  in  fashion,  to  the  introduction 
of  flannelette  and  other  cotton  substitutes,  and 
to  some  extent  to  foreign  competition.  There 
was,  indeed,  a  great  falling  off  in  the  demand  for 
the  genuine  woollen  as  distinct  from  the  worsted 
article.  The  result  was  that  many  woollen  mills 
were  closing  their  doors,  and  the  stranded  work- 
people were  beginning  to  swear  allegiance  to  the 
all-conquering  King  Cotton.  The  naval  and 
military  authorities,  it  is  true,  had  not  broken 
with  the  old  and  highly-reputable  firms  who  serve 
the  sailors  with  their  serviceable  navy  blue  and 
the  soldiers  with  their  unsurpassable  silver-grey 
flannel,  and  there  still  remained,  too,  a  large 
foreign  and  colonial  market;  but  it  was  none  the 
less  a  fact,  that  many  old  wool  men  had  begun  to 
shake  their  heads  and  predict  the  direst  of  things 
for  the  trade  to  which  they  had  been  so  long 
attached,  and  which  had  behind  it  so  many  an- 
cient and  honourable  traditions. 

The  chief  reason  for  this  foreboding  was  that 
the  woollen  trade  had  been  the  victim  of  a  radical 


186  WOOL 

change  in  fashion;  indeed,  the  change  marked  an 
epoch  and  not  a  mere  whim  or  passing  fancy.  The 
appearance  of  the  Athletic  Girl  towards  the  latter 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century  brought  about  an 
alteration  of  the  whole  scheme  of  things  sartorial, 
so  far  as  ladies  were  concerned.  When  English 
maidens  began  to  play  hockey  and  golf,  to  de- 
velop their  muscles  in  gymnasia,  to  shoot  and  fish 
and  row,  they  found  that  the  style  of  dress  ap- 
proved by  their  home-staying  grandmothers  was 
totally  unsuitable.  It  was  too  bulky  and  too 
full  of  restraints.  So  the  Leicester  and  Notting- 
ham hosiers,  seeing  a  rare  opportunity  held  out 
to  them,  began  to  produce  close-fitting  knitted 
hosiery,  which,  while  being  warm  and  serviceable, 
allowed  our  Dianas  to  shed  their  great  burdens  of 
underclothes.  The  flannel  petticoat  was  the  first 
to  go,  and  with  it,  of  course,  went  the  dowdiness 
inseparable  to  thick,  heavy  clothing.  Penelope, 
seeing  at  a  glance  that  her  athletic  sister's  form 
had  been  distinctly  accentuated  and  improved  in 
the  process,  quickly  adopted  the  new  fashion  in 
her  own  behalf,  with  the  result  that  flannel  lost 
to  an  enormous  extent  its  former  popularity. 
Worsteds  may  have  been  hard  hit  by  such  a  mode 
as  that  of  the  hobble-skirt,  but  that,  of  course, 
was  only  one  of  Fashion's  passing  vagaries,  not 
an  absolute  revolution  in  dress,  as  was  the  case 


THE  FUTURE  OF  WOOL  187 

with  the  wearers  of  thick  flannel  petticoats  fifteen 
or  twenty  years  ago. 

But  while  knitted  goods,  it  may  be  remarked, 
may  have  some  advantages  over  flannel  from  the 
point  of  view  indicated,  they  have  obvious  dis- 
advantages if  not  of  the  best  kind.  Cheap  cotton- 
mixed  hosiery  carries  with  it  many  penalties  in 
such  a  climate  as  ours;  but,  despite  the  warnings 
of  medical  men,  even  the  article  in  which  wool  is 
only  to  be  found  in  a  vanishing  quantity  seems 
now  to  be  preferred  to  the  less  tidy  but  more 
healthful  garment,  and  for  good  or  evil  knitted 
goods  have  undoubtedly  come  to  stay. 

As  pointed  out,  this  remarkable  turn  of  Fash- 
ion's wheel  has  done  more  than  any  other  thing 
to  injure  the  woollen  trade,  although  it  must  be 
said  that  flannelette,  also,  has  superseded  purely 
woollen  goods  for  a  variety  of  domestic  purposes. 
In  some  households,  already,  pure  wool  has  be- 
come almost  as  rare  a  thing  as  pure  silk,  all  kinds 
of  substitutes  having  been  introduced,  principally 
from  supposed  notions  of  economy. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  as  an  offset  to  the 
decrease  noticed  in  the  case  of  woollen  goods, 
that  so  far  as  worsted  fabrics  are  concerned,  there 
has  been  during  the  past  few  years  a  better  de- 
mand for  goods  made  from  the  genuine  article. 
The  West  of  England,  the  former  home  of  the 


188  WOOL 

"broad-cloth  of  respectability,"  still  stands  for 
quality,  and  Wiltshire,  Gloucester,  and  Somerset 
have  for  some  time  found  fashion  distinctly  in 
their  favour  owing  to  the  styles  of  cloth  being 
quieter  and  neater;  while  the  Leicester  and  Not- 
tingham trades,  which  employ  approximately 
40,000  people,  have  found  not  only  that  the  warm 
knitted  goods  required  by  the  motorist  have 
added  appreciably  to  the  bulk  of  their  manufac- 
tures, but  that  special  branded  makes  of  all-wool 
goods  are  being  more  and  more  called  for.  Those 
soft,  light,  yet  hard-wearing  home-spuns  made  by 
the  Irish  peasantry  were  also  having  a  special 
vogue  for  sporting  purposes  before  the  war,  as 
were  the  Harris  and  other  tweeds  for  which  Scot- 
land is  famous.  Trade  was  also  reviving  in  the 
better-class  serges  and  cheviots,  and  in  all  goods 
made  from  mohair.  Another  product  of  the  in- 
dustry for  which  there  is  always  a  great  and  reg- 
ular demand  is  knitting  wool,  of  which  large 
quantities  are  turned  out  at  the  Scottish  town  of 
Alloa. 

At  home,  therefore,  while  there  are  several 
factors  at  work  which  indicate  that  we  shall  have 
to  look  for  a  reduction  rather  than  an  increase  in 
consumption  when  normal  times  return  again, 
there  are  others  of  a  more  encouraging  character, 
and,  in  spite  of  a  probable  increase  in  competition, 


THE  FUTURE  OF  WOOL  189 

Great  Britain  will  no  doubt  in  the  future  continue 
more  than  to  hold  her  own  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 

It  has  always  been  an  interesting  speculation  as 
to  whether  England  will  be  able  to  maintain  pre- 
eminence in  wool  manufacture  in  view  of  the  expan- 
sion which  is  taking  place  both  within  the  Empire 
and  in  foreign  countries.  Possibly  no  country 
in  the  world  is  better  placed  as  regards  fuel, 
machinery,  and  climatic  conditions,  but  never- 
theless there  are  signs  and  portents  that  the  po- 
sition of  Britain  is  being  challenged  from  many 
quarters — from  America,  from  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  and  from  her  own  great  and  growing 
colonies.  Many  nations  have  undoubtedly  begun 
to  manufacture  for  themselves,  but,  try  as  they 
may,  they  have  still  to  come  to  England  for  the 
finest  products  of  the  spindle  and  the  loom.  Amer- 
ica, for  example,  has  of  late  years  busied  herself 
in  securing  British  managers  and  British  textile 
machinery,  but,  with  all  her  efforts,  she  cannot 
yet  make  the  best  class  of  "stuffs"  and  cloth. 
Germany,  which  had  gone  ahead  so  rapidly  before 
the  war,  will  probably  for  a  long  time  be  handi- 
capped in  the  race;  and  France,  which  is  Britain's 
most  serious  rival,  is  still  bound  to  acknowl- 
edge England's  supremacy  in  many  departments 
of  manufacture.  Indeed,  notwithstanding  tariff 


190  WOOL 

walls,  and  the  fact  that  Englishmen  are  to  be 
found  at  the  head  of  nine  out  of  every  ten  foreign 
firms,  the  British  product  is  still  able  to  hold  its 
own  against  the  world. 

Probably,  as  time  goes  on,  Britain  may  find 
among  her  keenest  rivals  one  of  her  own  colonies. 
Australia  has  begun  to  ask  herself  precisely  the 
same  question  that  Queen  Philippa,  the  consort 
of  Edward  III.,  asked  hundreds  of  years  ago:  Why 
should  the  country  that  grows  the  wool  send  it  to 
the  other  side  of  the  world  to  be  manufactured, 
when  it  could  perhaps  be  manufactured  at  home 
without  that  trouble  and  expense?  Possibly  the 
British  manufacturer  would  reply  that  the  shoe- 
maker should  stick  to  his  last — that  a  complete 
answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  Australia  is 
best  adapted  for  wool-growing,  while  England  has 
every  advantage  in  the  matter  of  manufacturing. 
But  this  answer  is  evidently  not  deemed  sufficient 
in  Australia.  In  addition  to  expanding  its  wool 
markets,  Britain's  daughter  at  the  Antipodes  is 
beginning  to  dream  dreams  of  industrial  expansion 
and  striking  achievements  in  the  great  world  of 
textile  manufacture,  and  is  already  fostering  those 
dreams  by  means  of  Government  subsidies  and 
by  the  equipment  of  factories  on  British  lines. 

As  showing  how  earnestly  the  people  of  Aus- 
tralia are  beginning  to  deal  with  the  matter,  it 


THE  FUTURE  OF  WOOL  191 

need  only  be  pointed  out  that  an  Inter-State 
Commission  has  been  brought  into  being  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  how  best  the  infant  trade 
of  wool  manufacturing  can  be  encouraged  and 
protected.  Quite  recently  it  sat  to  consider  an 
application  for  the  alteration  of  the  rate  of  bounty 
to  7/sd.  per  Ib.  on  all  wool  tops  exported,  and  to 
consider,  also,  an  increase  in  the  limit  payable  in 
any  one  year  to  £20,000,  the  removal  of  the 
duties  on  textile  machinery  and  on  spare  parts 
for  such  machinery,  as  well  as  an  increase  of  the 
duties  on  all  woollen  and  cotton  yarns  imported 
to  25  per  cent.  The  application  in  so  far  as  it 
related  to  cotton  yarn  was  subsequently  with- 
drawn, and  the  suggested  rate  of  duty  on  woollen 
yarns  was  amended  to  35  per  cent,  general  and 
30  per  cent,  preferential. 

The  evidence  placed  before  the  Commission  was 
very  interesting,  and  the  arguments  submitted 
must  have  had  considerable  weight  with  the  Com- 
missioners. It  was  pointed  out  that  England, 
France,  Germany,  and  the  United  States  were  all 
great  because  of  their  industrial  development,  and 
that  it  was  only  by  industrial  development  that 
the  future  of  Australia  would  be  assured.  Aus- 
tralia, it  was  stated,  produced  wool  yearly  to  the 
value  of  £24,000,000,  and  the  manufacture  of 
that  wool  gave  employment  in  other  countries, 


192  WOOL 

directly  and  indirectly,  to  about  1,000,000  work- 
people. The  value  added  to  the  wool  after  it  left 
Australia  was  about  £50,000,000,  in  which  Aus- 
tralia did  not  participate.  This  being  the  case, 
the  time  had  arrived  when  Australia  should  not 
be  satisfied  with  merely  supplying  cheap  raw 
material  to  other  countries,  but  should  embark 
on  the  manufacture  of  that  raw  material  wherever 
possible.  If  Australia  were  only  to  convert  all 
her  wool  clip  into  tops,  £6,000,000  per  annum 
would  be  added  to  its  value  in  the  country  where 
it  was  grown.  The  market  for  tops,  it  was  pointed 
out,  was  world-wide,  as  was  to  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  England,  after  importing  wool 
from  Australia  and  elsewhere,  exported  about 
75,000,000  Ibs.  of  tops  yearly,  and  also  imported 
fine  quality  tops  from  the  Continent.  Tops,  it 
was  argued,  could  be  produced  in  Australia  and 
shipped  cheaply  enough  to  undersell  English  tops 
in  England,  or  German-made  tops  in  Germany, 
while  Australia  was  most  favourably  situated  to 
supply  the  large  and  growing  demand  for  tops  in 
Japan  and  China. 

As  a  further  inducement  to  act,  and  act  quickly, 
the  following  letter,  written  to  the  Commissioners 
in  December,  1914,  by  one  of  the  most  prominent 
manufacturers  in  Australia,  shows  how  heartily 
the  people  at  the  Antipodes  are  entering  into  the 


THE  FUTURE  OF  WOOL  193 

question  of  home  production,  and  what  English 
and  other  manufacturers  may  have  to  face  in  the 
future : — 

"I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Commission 
to  the  almost  imperative  necessity  of  establishing 
spinning  mills  in  Australia,  because  of  the  condi- 
tions that  will  be  brought  about  by  the  war. 

"  Practically  the  whole  of  the  wool  industry  of  France 
is  centred  in  the  North,  mainly  in  Rheims  and  Roubaix- 
Tourcoing  districts.  A  recent  cable  stated  that  the 
mills  in  Rheims  have  all  been  totally  destroyed — 
the  damage  being  estimated  at  fourteen  millions 
sterling.  When  the  German  Army  now  in  occupa- 
tion retreats,  it  is  more  than  probable  the  Roubaix- 
Tourcoing  district  will  similarly  suffer. 

"In  Russia,  the  most  important  centre  for  woollen 
manufacture  is  Lodz,  which  is  the  scene  of  terrific 
destruction  at  present. 

"After  the  war,  it  is  probable  that  England,  America, 
and  Japan  will  be  the  only  countries  left  with  textile 
machinery,  and  the  building  up  must  be  very  slow, 
as  Mulhausen,  which  is  the  Continental  centre  of 
textile  machinery  manufacture,  has  also  suffered 
severely. 

"It  follows  that  England,  America,  and  Japan  will 
be  called  upon  to  provide  the  world  with  wool  yarn. 
France,  Belgium,  Russia,  and  perhaps  Germany  also, 
will  have  to  resuscitate  the  industry  anew.  They 
will  probably  for  a  considerable  time  attempt  only 
weaving  and  knitting,  importing  the  combed  and 
spun  yard,  instead  of  combing  and  spinning  themselves. 

"The  present  difficulties  of  importing  yarn  to  Aus- 


104  WOOL 

tralia  will  then  be  much  increased,  so  that  further 
accentuation  is  given  to  my  contention  that  the  woollen 
industry  in  Australia  cannot  progress  as  it  should 
unless  supplies  of  yarn  are  available  locally. 

"It  seems,  therefore,  that  it  would  be  wise  if  steps 
were  taken  to  encourage  the  industry  immediately,  so 
that  machinery  might  be  obtained  now  from  England, 
whilst  machinery  makers  can  supply  it.  It  is  more 
than  probable  that  later  the  English  makers  will  be 
inundated  with  orders  that  may  take  years  to  execute." 

New  Zealand,  also,  is  beginning  to  be  a  factor 
on  the  industrial  side,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
circumstance  that  the  quantity  of  wool  purchased 
by  local  mills  has  yearly  grown  from  2,476,155 
Ibs.  in  1894  to  6,823,545  Ibs.  in  1913.  The  latest 
returns  available  show  that  there  are  eleven 
woollen  mills  and  fourteen  hosiery  factories  in 
the  dominion,  employing  1,410  and  527  persons 
respectively. 

It  must,  of  course,  be  remembered,  when  speak- 
ing of  new  countries  taking  up  manufacturing, 
that,  like  Rome,  big  woollen  industries  cannot  be 
built  up  in  a  day,  for  there  are  many  factors, 
apart  from  the  possession  of  raw  material  and 
machinery,  which  go  to  make  up  success  in  textile 
manufacture.  Climate,  of  course,  is  a  very  im- 
portant one,  and  craftsmanship  is  another. 

It  is  not  mere  chance,  as  we  have  shown,  which 
has  converted  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire,  with 


THE  FUTURE  OF  WOOL  195 

their  exceptionally  humid  atmospheres,  into  the 
places  where  spinning  and  weaving  can  be  done 
under  ideal  conditions,  and  the  most  expert  of 
imported  managers  and  overlookers  would  have 
to  wait  long  years  before  they  could  train  unaccus- 
tomed labour  to  be  as  deft  and  clever  as  the  factory 
people  of  the  North  of  England. 

Wool-working,  like  the  making  of  wine,  depends 
very  largely  for  its  success  upon  the  personal 
element.  The  product  of  the  new  vineyards  of 
the  world  may  be  quite  as  choice  as  that  of  France, 
but  made  and  matured  by  alien  hands  it  never 
reaches  the  same  state  of  perfection  in  the  bottle. 
It  is  the  same  with  wool.  The  Briton  must  always 
have  been  exceedingly  apt  at  the  trade,  for  he  was 
not  long  before  he  showed  much  more  skill  in 
the  industry  than  the  Roman  who  taught  him, 
and  centuries  ago  his  fame  went  abroad  into  the 
Low  Countries  as  a  wool-worker  of  extraordinary 
ability.  His  spinning,  they  said,  was  like  unto 
the  spider's  web  for  fineness.  Endowed  with  the 
skill  of  successive  generations,  his  hand  shows 
that  it  has  by  no  means  lost  its  cunning.  The 
fineness  of  his  work  nowadays  can  be  judged 
when  it  is  stated  that  in  some  places  in  Yorkshire, 
where  much  silk  is  used  along  with  the  wool,  silk 
is  sometimes  employed  of  so  fine  a  texture  that  it 
requires  20,000  yards  of  it  to  make  an  ounce. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

SOME  SALIENT   FACTS  AND   FIGURES 

THE  total  number  of  sheep  in  the  world  at  any 
time  can  at  best  be  only  estimated,  but  the  highest 
authorities  agree  to  figures  ranging  between 
620,000,000  and  630,000,000.  The  amount  of  raw 
wool  the  sheep  of  the  world  annually  produce  is  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  3,000,000,000  Ibs. 

Wool  is  a  product  which  is  continually  varying 
in  quantity — a  wet  or  dry  season  at  home  and 
abroad,  for  instance,  may  make  a  difference  in 
the  yield  of  thousands  of  pounds — it  is  often 
grown  in  places  so  remote  as  to  make  it  impossible 
to  check  the  numbers  of  the  flocks,  and  important 
variations  also  occur  through  differences  in  the 
estimates  of  available  supplies  of  greasy  and 
scoured  wools.  And  if  there  is  uncertainty  in  the 
matter  of  raw  material,  there  is  again  no  little 
difficulty  in  making  reliable  computations  on  the 
manufacturing  side,  where  a  trade  boom  or  depres- 
sion may  make  vital  differences,  and  where  a 
passing  fashion  may  profoundly  affect  public 
consumption  and  the  demands  of  the  merchants. 

196 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    197 

Unfortunately,  also,  official  statistics  are  not  kept 
up  to  date,  the  factory  returns,  for  instance,  being 
in  the  majority  of  cases  many  years  old. 

The  war,  too,  created  an  abnormal  state  of 
things  in  the  wool  trade.  The  demand  for  wool 
was  altogether  phenomenal,  and  prices  were 
greatly  inflated.  Business  on  the  London  Wool 
Exchange  was  remarkable  both  for  quantity  and 
high  prices.  Eight  series  of  sales  had  to  be  held 
in  1915  instead  of  six,  the  number  of  bales  dealt  in 
being  over  a  million,  or  an  increase  of  311,000 
over  the  previous  year.  The  explanation  is  to  be 
found  in  the  enormously  greater  quantity  of 
clothing  used  and  destroyed  by  armies  in  the  field 
as  compared  with  the  same  number  in  civilian 
occupations;  the  spinning  of  thicker  counts  of 
yarn,  enabling  a  larger  weight  of  material  to  be 
turned  out  by  the  reduced  machinery  working; 
and  the  storing  up  of  raw  material  in  the  United 
States  and  the  River  Plate  for  shipment  to  enemy 
countries  at  the  close  of  the  war. 

As  regards  the  size  of  its  flocks  and  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  wool  produced,  Australia  nowadays 
occupies  the  foremost  position  among  the  sheep- 
raising  countries  in  the  world.  The  Argentine 
Republic  comes  next,  and  the  United  Kingdom 
and  the  Cape  run  a  tight  race  for  the  sixth  place. 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  accompanying  table, 


198 


WOOL 


TABLE  I. — NUMBER  OF  SHEEP  IN  VARIOUS 
COUNTRIES 


Country 

Date 

No.  of  Sheep 

Australia  

1913 

85,057,402 

Argentine  Republic. 

1911 

80,401,486 

Russian  Empire  * 

1912 

74,066,167 

United  States  of  America 

1912 

52,362,000 

Ottoman  Empire  

1908 

40,000,000 

Union  of  South  Africa   .    . 

1911 

30,656,659 

United  Kingdom 

1912 

28,967,495 

Uruguay  

1908 

26,286,296 

New  Zealand  . 

1913 

24,181,810 

British  India  2 

1910 

23,280,662 

France  „  

1912 

16,467,700 

Spain 

1912 

15,829,954 

Italv 

1908 

11,162,926 

Austria-Hungary  * 

|l9!0l 

10,976,305 

Algeria         .    . 

1  1911  J 
1911 

8,528,610 

Bulgaria 

1905 

8,130,997 

Germany  

1912 

5,803,445 

Roumania  .                     

1900 

5,655,444 

Chile 

1911 

4,168,572 

Servia  

1910 

3,808,815 

Mexico     

1902 

3,424,430 

Portugal 

1906 

3,072,988 

Canada  *  

1912 

2,084,594 

Norway             . 

1907 

1,393,488 

Sweden  

1911 

945,709 

Netherlands  

1910 

889,036 

Tunis 

1911 

766,848 

Denmark  

1909 

726,879 

Iceland 

1910 

578,634 

Belgium 

1895 

235,722 

Switzerland  

1911 

161,414 

1  Including  goats. 

'Austria  1910,  Hungary  1911. 


*  Exclusive  of  Eastern  Bengal. 
« Exclusive  of  British  Columbia. 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    199 

Australia  has  over  85,000,000  sheep,  and  the  out- 
put of  wool  for  the  season  under  notice  was  valued 
at  over  £28,500,000.  The  bulk  of  this  wool  is 
exported,  but  with  the  increased  activity  of  the 
local  woollen  mills  there  has  in  recent  years  been 
an  increasing  quantity  used  in  Australia,  although 
even  now  the  amount  so  used  represents  little 
more  than  !}/£  per  cent,  of  the  whole  clip. 

About  39  per  cent,  of  the  exports  of  wool  from 
the  Commonwealth  is  despatched  to  the  United 
Kingdom,  the  other  leading  consignees  being 
France,  Germany,  Belgium,  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  Japan.  The  greater  part  of  the 
wool  grown  in  Australia  is  now  sold  in  the  local 
markets  prior  to  export.  Buyers  from  all  over  the 
world  attend  the  sales  held  regularly  at  Sydney, 
Melbourne,  Geelong,  Brisbane,  Adelaide,  Fre- 
mantle,  Hobart,  and  Launceston.  In  nineteen 
years  the  quantity  sold  locally  has  more  than 
doubled,  and  the  ratio  of  wool  sold  to  that  ex- 
ported has  increased  from  51  per  cent,  in  1895  to 
over  86}/2  per  cent,  in  the  season  ended  June  30th, 
1914.  During  that  season  1,703,744  bales  of 
wool  were  sold  in  Australia  and  264,834  bales  in 
New  Zealand,  representing  a  total  value  of 
£26,079,536.  This  enormous  quantity  far  ex- 
ceeds the  sales  of  any  other  country  in  the  world, 
and,  of  course,  has  had  an  appreciable  effect  upon 


200 


WOOL 


TABLE  II. — PRINCIPAL  IMPORTS  OF  WOOL  INTO  THE 
UNITED  KINGDOM,  1913 


Country  from  which  Imported 

Quantity 

Value 

Australia                    ' 

Lbs. 
265,078,480 

£ 
12,301,380 

New  Zealand                   .    .  .  . 

181,181,381 

8,165,408 

Union  of  South  Africa 

133  224,202 

5  095,818 

Argentine  Republic  

55,455,562 

2,140,647 

France                      .           

24,492,772 

1,691,611 

British  India 

54  946,318 

1,659,117 

Chile          

24,286,912 

788,962 

Uruguay            .            .... 

9,657,762 

397,028 

Russia  

7,144,338 

325,337 

Turkey          .                   

9,428,448 

274,071 

Peru  

5,281,190 

212,300 

Germany   .      

4,717,683 

210,903 

Falkland  Islands     

6,150,514 

205,424 

Belcium 

3,088,406 

142,770 

U  S  of  America  

2,582,876 

132,160 

Egypt.  . 

4,112,081 

119,079 

China  

2,316,400 

88,25 

Italy 

1,237,712 

68,302 

Persia  

1,864,720 

51,517 

1,421,086 

48,346 

Canada  

724,019 

25,684 

Iceland  and  Greenland 

432,847 

18,097 

Netherlands  

345,861 

12,495 

M^orocco                        

292,549 

9,174 

201,618 

8,803 

Spain                         

100,523 

3,277 

Other  countries 

814,555 

30,134 

Total 

800,580,815 

34,226,103 

It  will  be  seen  that  of  the  total  importations  of  wool  into  the 
United  Kingdom,  Australian  wool  represented  over  33  per  cent,  of 
quantity  and  nearly  36  per  cent,  of  value. 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    201 

the  dealings  at  the  London  Colonial  Wool  Sales. 
From  the  establishment  of  the  London  Wool 
Sales  in  1814,  the  number  of  bales  brought  to 
London  increased  by  tens  of  thousands  per  year 
up  to  1901,  when  a  great  falling  off  began.  In 
1901  the  total  of  bales  offered  was  1,598,986,  but 
from  the  following  year,  when  millions  of  sheep 
died  in  Australia  owing  to  the  great  drought,  the 
figures  began  to  dwindle,  and  will  probably  never 
again  reach  the  previous  high- water  mark  so  far  as 
Australian  wool  is  concerned.  There  was  a  rally 
during  the  period  of  the  war,  caused  by  the  Aus- 
tralians throwing  a  portion  of  their  reserve  supplies 
upon  the  market,  but  the  effect  was  expected  to 
be  only  temporary.  There  is  a  belief  among  many 
manufacturers  that  both  pecuniary  and  other 
advantages  are  to  be  gained  by  buying  at  the 
source.  One  of  these  supposed  advantages  is  that 
the  pick  of  the  wool  is  to  be  obtained  by  sending 
buyers  to  Australia. 

Of  the  total  of  1,703,744  bales  of  greasy  wool 
sold  in  Australia  in  the  season  ended  June  30th, 
1914,  at  an  average  price  of  a  trifle  over  9j^d. 
per  lb.,  1,184,531  were  purchased  for  the  Conti- 
nent of  Europe,  318,661  for  the  United  Kingdom, 
90,265  for  America,  20,500  for  Asiatic  countries, 
57,353  by  scourers  and  speculators,  while  32,434 
bales  went  for  consumption  in  the  local  woollen 


202 


WOOL 


TABLE  III. — QUANTITIES  CATALOGUED  AT  THE  LONDON 
COLONIAL  WOOL  SALES 

(From  the  Yorkshire  Post  Annual  Trade  Review.) 


1912 

1913 

1914 

1915 

Sydney 

Bales 
130,830 

Bales 
126  100 

Bales 
116  400 

Bales 

277  100 

Queensland   .... 

99,340 

107  000 

106  300 

165  900 

Port  Philip  

106,530 

87  100 

67  600 

38  100 

Adelaide  . 

52,400 

27  000 

35  300 

26  700 

Tasmania  .... 

12,920 

9200 

7300 

6  600 

West  Australia  
New  Zealand  

85,050 
416,230 

71,500 
388,200 

58,300 
357  800 

74,000 
348  800 

Australasian. 

903  300 

816  100 

749  000 

983  600 

Cape.  . 

42,400 

35,600 

22000 

47  100 

Total  

945,700 

851,700 

771,000 

1  030  700 

DISTRIBUTION  OP  WOOL  SOLD  AT  THE  LONDON  AUCTIONS 


Home  Trade  
Export  

Total  

521,000 
377,000 

469,000 
321,000 

530,000 
235,000 

823,000 
148,000 

898,000 

790,000 

765,000 

971,000 

TOTAL  EUROPEAN  AND  AMERICAN  IMPORTS  FOR  THE  SEASON 


Australasian  . 

2,463,000 

2,296,000 

2,322  000 

1,978  000 

Cape 

463,000 

484,000 

499  000 

414,000 

Total  Colonial  
River  Plate  

2,926,000 
497,000 

2,780,000 
437,000 

2,831,000 
406,000 

2,392,000 
unavailable 

Total  

3,424,000 

3,217,000 

3,237,000 

2,392,000 

mills.  Of  the  Continental  purchases  56.5  per 
cent,  went  to  France,  Belgium,  and  Holland, 
nearly  35.9  per  cent,  to  Germany,  and  7.6  per 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    203 

cent,  to  Austria,  Italy,  and  other  European  coun- 
tries. 

The  quantity  of  Australian  wool  scoured  and 
washed  before  export  is,  on  the  average,  about  20 
per  cent,  of  the  total  clip.  With  the  exception  of 
a  short  period  in  the  early  sixties,  when  the  flocks 
of  Victoria  outnumbered  those  of  the  mother 
State,  New  South  Wales  has  maintained  amongst 
the  Commonwealth  group  the  lead  in  sheep  pro- 
duction which  naturally  attached  to  it  as  the 
portion  of  the  Commonwealth  in  which  settlement 
was  first  effected. 

The  following  are  the  official  figures  of  Aus- 
tralia's wool  industry  in  the  normal  year  of  1913 : — 

Number  of  sheep  (December  31st,  1913):— 

New  South  Wales    .          .         .  39,693,643 

Queensland     ....  21,786,600 

Victoria 12,113,682 

South  Australia       .         .         .  5,073,057 

Western  Australia    .         .         .  4,421,375 

Tasmania        ....  1,745,356 

Federal  Capital  Territory          .  148,875 

Northern  Territory           .         .  67,109 


Total,  Commonwealth          .       85,049,697 


204  WOOL 

Value  of  Wool  and  Sheepskins  exported: — 

£ 

Greasy  wool  (531,436,878  Ibs.)        21,479,782 
Scoured     and     washed     wool 

(60,888,364  Ibs.)  .  4,381,610 

Tops  (3,561,722  Ibs.)         .  415,670 

Skins     with     wool     (number, 

10,948,232)  .          .  2,482,059 

Skins   without   wool    (number, 

155,702)  7,062 


Total  value       .  £  28,766,183 

In  addition  to  her  production  of  wool,  Aus- 
tralia's export  trade  in  mutton  and  lamb,  pre- 
served by  cold  process,  has  now  reached  an  annual 
value  of  two  and  a  quarter  millions,  and  this 
trade,  like  that  of  New  Zealand,  is  likely  to  grow 
rapidly  in  future.  Already  considerable  attention 
is  being  paid  to  the  breeding  of  a  class  of  sheep 
that  will  furnish  both  a  good  quality  of  wool  and 
an  excellent  carcase  for  export  purposes.  Crosses 
between  the  merino  and  the  Leicester  and  Lincoln 
breeds  have  proved  valuable,  and  the  breeding 
of  Shropshires  and  Southdowns  for  meat  and 
wool  production  is  also  on  the  increase.  Aus- 
tralia's principal  customer  in  this  trade  is  the 
United  Kingdom,  which  has  absorbed  over  94  per 
cent,  of  the  total  quantity  exported  from  the 
Commonwealth  during  the  past  five  years. 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    205 

As  it  is  more  than  likely  that  it  will  be  to  the 
wool-producing  countries  of  the  Southern  Hemi- 
sphere that  the  manufacturing  world  in  the  future 
will  have  to  look  for  its  supplies — and  the  develop- 
ment of  Cape  Colony  is  at  the  moment  being 
watched  with  peculiar  interest — it  may  be  of 
value  to  give  a  comparison  of  the  wool  marketed 
by  the  three  great  wool-producing  places  in  the 
South.  The  imports  of  wool  into  Europe  and 
North  America  in  1914  from  Australia  and  New 
Zealand,  Cape  Colony,  and  the  Argentine  totalled 
3,237,000  bales,  2,332,000  of  which  came  from 
Australasia,  499,000  from  Cape  Colony,  and 
406,000  from  the  River  Plate.  As  the  River  Plate 
bale  is  much  larger  than  the  Australian  or  Cape 
bale,  however,  an  explanation  is  due  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Argentine.  Allowing  approximately 
for  the  difference  in  the  size  of  the  several  bales, 
it  may  be  said  that  during  the  five  years  ending 
1914  the  importations  from  Australia  and  the 
Dominion  of  New  Zealand  represent  about  65  per 
cent,  of  the  total. 

Owing,  however,  to  Australia  showing  a  grow- 
ing inclination  to  enter  the  frozen  mutton  trade, 
and  to  the  Argentine  finding  cattle  more  profitable 
than  sheep,  it  is  believed  that  wool  consumers 
will  in  the  future  look  more  and  more  to  the  Cape 
for  both  fine  and  cross-bred  fibres. 


206  WOOL 

The  tendency  to  which  we  have  referred — that 
of  relying  upon  the  spacious,  partly-settled  lands 
of  the  Southern  Hemisphere — will  no  doubt  grow 
stronger  in  future.  European  countries  are  find- 
ing it  much  more  profitable  to  buy  their  wool  than 
produce  it  themselves,  for  it  is  a  curious  fact  that 
the  more  settled  and  cultivated  a  country  is  the 
less  suitable  and  advantageous  it  becomes  for 
sheep-raising  purposes.  The  sheep  is  really  a 
pioneer,  going  in  front  to  prepare  a  way  for  cattle 
and  wheat.  The  moorlands  and  waste  spaces  are, 
by  a  happy  dispensation,  the  real  homes  of  the 
sheep,  not  the  enclosed  acreage  fields.  England 
and  Scotland  have  always  found  accommodation 
for  millions  of  sheep  on  the  moorlands,  but  even 
in  these  islands  the  numbers  are  steadily  decreas- 
ing. In  Germany,  which  formerly  entered  into 
the  business  of  sheep-raising  with  thoroughness 
and  characteristic  method,  there  is  now  but  a 
mere  handful,  the  people  of  that  country  years 
ago  finding  that  it  was  much  more  profitable  to 
go  to  the  British  colonies  for  their  supplies  of 
wool.  The  intensive  method  of  cultivation  may 
be  all  very  well  for  producing  mutton,  but  it  is 
much  too  costly  for  wool  purposes  only.  It  is 
better,  therefore,  to  leave  this  production  to  such 
vast  countries  as  Australia,  where,  in  places,  there 
are  not  more  than  two  or  three  sheep  to  the  acre, 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    207 

and  where  sheep  can  be  practically  left  to  their 
natural  resources  until  the  shearing  time  comes 
round. 

As  to  the  price  of  wool,  there  can,  of  course,  be 
no  standard  where  some  is  home  and  some  colonial 
grown,  where  the  quantity  available  varies  from 
year  to  year,  and  where  the  demand  as  well  as  the 
supply  is  continually  fluctuating.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  average  prices  of  some  typical  classes 
of  English  and  Irish  wools  (stated  in  pence  per 
Ib.)  during  five  years  which  embraced  peace  and 
war  times.  It  will  be  remembered  that  extraordi- 
nary demands  were  made  on  wool-growers  for 
Army  clothing  purposes  during  the  latter  part  of 
1914  and  onwards: — 


1911 


1912 


1913 


1914 


1915 


Lincoln  wethers 

English  half-breds 

Super  Irish  hogs 

Selected  Irish  wethers 

Southdowns . . 


12 

12% 


14M 


13 


19 
21 
21 


21 


The  same  condition  of  things  applied  to  colonial 
and  foreign  wools,  the  contest  for  which  caused 
some  excited  scenes  on  the  London  Wool  Exchange 
after  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  The  two  best 
years  for  comparison  are  1913  and  1915.  From 
the  Yorkshire  Observer  Wool  Tables,  we  find  that 


208 


WOOL 


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P3       rO 

O  O 
£    S 

IS 


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Is 


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s  lOCOCX 


SOO^^tO 
lOlOT-ii-i 


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*il£t9r+ 


>  CO  M  <D  T-H  « 
t^i-J 


eo* 


iliiliiliji 


liilll 


f-73   *>      '. 

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a  £  t-ta  o  a 


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ge-3 

7  si 

^'  i-S 

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fe  b  • 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    209 

in  1913  the  average  price  of  Port  Philip  grease  was 
14d.,  against  20d.  in  1915;  Adelaide  grease,  9dL, 
as  against  IZ^d.;  Cape  (Eastern),  7^.,  against 
Wd.;  Buenos  Ayres  grease,  6%d.,  against  9d.;  and 
Donskoi  (white  carding),  9%d.,  against  l%d.  The 
scoured  wools  are,  of  course,  much  higher  in 
price,  and  these  during  the  war  advanced  35  to  50 
per  cent,  in  the  case  of  merinos,  30  to  40  per  cent, 
for  fine  cross-bred  wool,  and  25  to  30  per  cent,  for 
low  and  medium  cross-breds.  At  the  close  of 
1915,  Port  Philip  scoured  merino  fetched  28d.  to 
33d.  (superior  to  extra),  22d.  to  27 %d.  (average 
to  good),  and  18j/^d.  to  21dL  (inferior  to  average). 
Sydney  scoured  merino  in  the  three  classes  ran 
from  16^.  to  32 d.;' Queensland,  2Qd.  to  3%%d.; 
Adelaide,  I7d.  to  29d.;  New  Zealand,  21d.  to  Sid.; 
and  Cape,  snow  whites,  17d.  to  33^/2,d. 

In  an  industry  as  old  as  that  of  wool  it  is  hardly 
to  be  wondered  at  that  the  trade  has  for  centuries 
had  its  own  special  weights  and  measures.  Dur- 
ing the  war,  the  public  were  interested  to  see  an 
announcement  of  the  Scottish  woollen  drapers 
that  in  future  the  yard  measure  would  be  36 
inches  instead  of  37,  the  extra  inch,  representing 
the  width  of  the  thumb  at  the  cutting  off  point, 
having  in  happier  times  been  regularly  given  as 
over-measure. 

Wool  dealers,  so  far  as  weight  is  concerned, 


210  WOOL 

have  a  nomenclature  of  their  own.    The  table  by 
which  they  work  runs: — 


Cwt. 

qrs. 

Ibs. 

7  pounds     = 

1  clove     = 

0 

0 

7 

2  cloves       == 

1  stone     = 

0 

0 

14 

2  stones       = 

1  tod 

0 

1 

0 

6/^2  tods      = 

1  wey       = 

1 

2 

14 

2  weys         = 

1  sack       = 

3 

1 

0 

12  sacks        =     1  last  39         0          0 

British  wools  are  usually  marketed  by  the 
"pack"  of  240  Ibs. 

The  importance  of  the  British  trade  in  home- 
grown and  imported  wool,  as  well  as  the  position 
this  country  holds  in  the  manufacturing  world, 
can  be  gathered  from  the  statistics  reproduced  in 
this  chapter,  and  for  which  the  writer  is  principally 
indebted  to  the  valuable  tables  issued  by  the 
Bradford  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  originally 
compiled  by  Mr.  Frederick  Hooper,  the  Secretary 
to  the  Chamber  up  to  the  year  1906.  For  the 
five  years  1910-14,  the  yearly  average  of  wool 
imports  into  the  United  Kingdom  was  782,300,000 
Ibs.,  the  average  of  mohair,  alpaca,  and  other 
kinds  imported  41,900,000  Ibs.,  the  re-exports 
318,600,000  Ibs.,  leaving  a  balance  retained  for 
home  consumption  of  505,600,000  Ibs.  Of  home- 
grown wools  in  the  same  period  the  average 
yearly  clip  was  estimated  at  131,800,000  Ibs., 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    211 

the  exports  36,300,000  Ibs.,  and  the  balance  re- 
tained 95,500,000  Ibs.  With  the  addition  of 
35,000,000  Ibs.  of  wool  from  imported  sheepskins, 
and  206,400,000  Ibs.  of  pulled  wool,  or  "shoddy," 
there  was  a  grand  total  retained  of  842,600,000 
Ibs.  The  average  price  per  Ib.  of  imported  wool 
for  the  same  five  years  was  about  lO^d.  and 
l%%d.  for  home  grown,  and  the  total  value  of 
wool,  mohair,  shoddy,  &c.,  retained  yearly  in  the 
United  Kingdom  was  £31,787,200. 

We  are  obliged  to  go  back  again  to  the  year  1913 
for  normal  conditions  of  export.  In  that  year 
woollen  and  worsted  piece  goods  to  the  amount  of 
168,373,700  yards  were  exported,  the  woollens 
being  responsible  for  105,883,600  yards  of  that 
huge  figure.  The  value  of  the  exports  of  woollen 
and  worsted  goods,  manufactured  and  partly 
manufactured,  in  1913  was  £44,241,611,  made  up 
as  follows: — Manufactures,  £25,978,907;  yarns, 
£8,041,991;  tops,  noils  and  waste,  £5,831,230; 
apparel,  £3,959,299;  and  flocks  and  shoddy, 
£418,699. 

The  accompanying  table  giving  the  destination 
of  these  imports  will  be  found  of  interest  in  view 
of  the  trade  controversies  which  the  war  has  set 
up. 

The  import  and  export  of  yarns  is  a  question  of 
especial  importance  to  those  interested  in  fiscal 


212 


WOOL 


TABLE  V. — EXPORTS  OF  BRITISH  WOOLLEN  AND 
WORSTED  MANUFACTURES 

(Including  Coatings,  Stuffs,  Flannels  Blankets,  Carpets,  &c.) 


Exports  from  the  United 
Kingdom  to  — 

1912 

1913 

1914* 

£ 
2,251,305 

2  082  319 

£ 
1  305  187 

Holland    

681,539 

643919 

472  113 

733,963 

795  716 

355  493 

Russia         

327,995 

365  662 

318264 

126,489 

145  455 

125  194 

Norway            

91,676 

91  349 

100002 

234,138 

214  218 

206  774 

France        

1,811,026 

1  760  693 

1  835  405 

Switzerland 

189,909 

174  360 

93  872 

Portugal  

33,293 

36  093 

27  682 

105,061 

102  618 

91  498 

Italy        

497,755 

606538 

465  398 

563,067 

450  944 

387  370 

Rouniaiiia    

167,295 

78242 

85809 

148,771 

226  191 

306  308 

Turkey  

Egypt 

550,248 
276,578 

418,942 
216  676 

387,658 
202  080 

China  and  Hong  Kong  

132,333 
856,234 

956,765 
1  156  765 

661,986 
844  994 

Cuba 

97872 

96  141 

71  446 

Mexico            

154,224 

114  802 

19  176 

Colombia  

58,902 

69855 

51  846 

Ecuador              

26,160 

29  693 

30  044 

United  States  
Peru           

1,182,609 
160,847 

1,195,360 
160768 

3,894,782 
135499 

Chile   

693,045 

677,353 

359,153 

Brazil              

406,186 

384057 

163002 

Uruguay  

179,100 

194,180 

96,000 

Argentine  Republic 

1,398,777 

1  706  783 

887055 

Other  Foreign  Countries  

717,073 

855,838 

525,066 

Total  Piece  Goods,  Ac  

15,848,439 

15,768  750 

14,506,155 

Total  Yarns   

7,443,171 

7  215  636 

5  017  930 

Total  Tops  

3,296,939 

3,426,353 

3,010,139 

Total  Noils,  Waste,  &c  
Total  Flocks  and  Shoddy..  .  . 

1,834,233 
389,179 

2,137,904 
630,276 

1,666,651 
469,460 

Total  to  Foreign  Countries  .  . 

28,811,961 

33,560,320 

24,670,335 

British  South  Africa  

946,444 

897,803 

747  076 

British  East  Indies 

1,143  595 

1  482  775 

1  200  911 

Australia  
New  Zealand 

2,691,621 
689,547 

2,690,561 
707  057 

2,727,129 
563  552 

British  North  America  
British  West  Indies  
Other  British  Possessions  

4,263,768 
95,533 
385,020 

3,999,516 
78,805 
493,515 

2,898,789 
75,367 
356,876 

Total  to  British  Possessions  . 

11,230,981 

11,457,565 

9,289,461 

Total  to  all  Countries  

40,231,261 

45,017,885 

33,959,796 

*  The  European  War  broke  out  at  tha  end  of  July,  1014. 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    213 

matters,  and  in  this  connection  it  may  be  interest- 
ing to  point  out  that  the  value  of  yarns  exported 
from  country  rose  from  £3,852,998  in  1862  to 
£9,046,394  in  1910.  Since  this  date  the  figures 
have  declined  by  about  £1,000,000.  The  imports 
of  woollen  and  worsted  yarns  in  the  earliest  year 
recorded  in  the  Bradford  Chamber  of  Commerce 
tables  (1860)  weighed  3,007,711  Ibs.,  and  were 
valued  at  £472,363,  but  in  1913  the  weight  of  these 
imports  had  risen  to  32,993,997  Ibs.,  and  the  value 
to  £3,532,656.  France  (£1,522,969)  and  Belgium 
(£1,409,097)  sent  the  bulk  of  carded  yarns  for 
woollen  manufacture  in  1913,  but  Germany,  who 
was  responsible  for  only  £424,337  worth  of  woollen 
yarns,  headed  the  list  for  worsted  yarns,  and  what 
are  known  as  Berlin  and  Zephyr  yarns. 

Of  the  imports  of  carpets  and  rugs,  which 
amounted  in  1913  to  1,965,006  square  yards  and 
were  valued  at  £698,371,  Asiatic  Turkey  headed 
the  list  with  £154,128  worth,  followed  by  Bel- 
gium (£88,900),  European  Turkey  (£60,250), 
France  (£55,531),  Germany  (£53,738),  and  Per- 
sia (£53,031).  Other  foreign  imports  totalled 
£80,382,  and  British  possessions  sent  carpets  and 
rugs  to  the  value  of  £152,411.  Italy  has  the  bulk 
of  the  trade  in  travelling  rugs,  coverlets,  and 
wrappers,  monopolising  £17,873  of  the  total  of 
£20,854. 


214 


WOOL 


8 


I 

§ 

1 


^ 

E2 


Total 
Value  o 
Manu 
facture 


Flannels 
and 
Blankets 


I 

p 


a"S 
*S 

°-l 

s£ 


a"  a"  s"  a"  sf 


5  §  5*  S 


0    t»    0    Jg 
t»    O<    f^    O& 

i>    00    00    t> 


co  o  co  co 


OQ    l^-    O^    CO    ^ 

*  I  i  #  i 


yp 

O 


. 
05    0»    t-    »0    00    O>    •* 

S  8"  I?"         S3  S 


o  i-i  o»  co  •*  «o 

S    O    S    OS    OS    05 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    215 


A  few  concluding  remarks  on  the  influence  of 
the  war  on  woollen  and  worsted  would  perhaps 
not  be  out  of  place  seeing  how  profoundly  the 
trade  has  been  affected  by  hostilities  undertaken 
on  such  a  gigantic  scale,  and  how  altered  the 
conditions  are  likely  to  be  in  the  future.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  on  the  whole  the  war  will  be 
found  to  have  brought  something  more  than  a 
temporary  revival  in  manufacturing — always  sup- 
posing, of  course,  that  the  supply  of  wool  can  be 
kept  up  to  a  point  which  allows  of  the  raw  material 
being  purchased  at  a  reasonable  figure. 

TABLE  VII. — SUMMARY  OF  WOOLLEN  AND  WORSTED 
FACTORIES  IN  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM 

(Viz.,  Woollen,  Worsted,  and  Shoddy) 


1885 

1889 

1904  i 

2,751 

2517 

2  382 

Rag  Grinding  Machines               

900 

Woollen  Carding  Sets 

6  700 

Worsted  Combing  Machines  

2924 

2780565 

Spinning  Spindles  j  Q^^;  '  * 

O,o7o,lUJ 

5,604,535 

2  844  912 

Doubling  Spindles 

769,492 

969  812 

1  059  049 

Power    (  ^P  ^°  ^  *n*  r®6^  space  

9,456 

ooxus  I  Over  40  and  under  60  in  

22843 

1  60  in.  reed  space  and  over  
Total  

139,902 

131,506 

72,215 
104  514 

Children  working  Half  -time:  — 
Males    

11  667 

11  102 

1907 
4001 

Females 

12969 

11  838 

4  115 

Persons  working  Full-time:  — 
Males            

112935 

120441 

104,837 
104837 

145  684 

158  175 

148  239 

Persons  employed:  — 
Males     .        .    . 

124  602 

131  543 

108838 

Females  

157,653 

170,013 

152,354 

Total  Number  of  Persons  Employed  

282,255 

301,556 

261,192 

1  The  latest  year  to  hand. 


216  WOOL 

The  war,  indeed,  has  altered  the  whole  com- 
plexion of  things.  Up  to  the  end  of  the  summer 
of  1914,  when  the  peace  of  the  world  was  so  rudely 
broken,  the  trade,  if  not  in  a  languishing,  was 
certainly  not  in  a  satisfactory  state — a  remark 
which  applies  more  particularly,  perhaps,  to  the 
woollen  section,  which,  speaking  broadly,  has  to 
do  with  the  provision  of  undergarments  rather 
than  the  cloths  and  stuffs  which  are  worn  for 
outward  adornment.  Cotton  had  made  great 
inroads  into  the  woollen  trade,  especially  in  the 
make-up  of  the  cheaper  kinds  of  knitted  hosiery, 
which  had  so  largely  ousted  good  honest  flannel, 
and  many  old-established  firms  had  begun  to 
close  their  doors. 

The  figures  giving  the  number  of  factories  in 
the  country  are  illuminating.  While  worsted 
mills  during  the  past  thirty  or  forty  years  had 
shown  a  small  but  steady  increase  in  number — the 
number  in  the  United  Kingdom  had  advanced 
from  703  in  1867  to  841  in  1904,  the  latest  date  at 
which  a  census  was  taken — the  woollen  factories, 
which  numbered  1,658  in  1867,  had  fallen  in  1904 
to  1,377,  having  reached  their  highest  point 
(1,918)  in  1885.  It  is  significant,  also,  to  note 
that  woollen  shoddy  factories  in  the  same  period 
increased  from  108  to  161,  and  that  cotton  mills, 
although  rather  fewer  in  number,  had  become 


SOME  SALIENT  FACTS  AND  FIGURES    217 

much  larger,  and  could  show  an  increase  of  mil- 
lions of  spindles  and  double  the  number  of  power- 
looms. 

The  war,  it  should  be  said,  brought  a  slight 
increase  in  the  number  of  woollen  factories,  for 
manufacturers  of  khaki  cloth,  Navy  flannel,  and 
general  service  blankets  were  so  hard  pressed  to 
fulfil  Government  orders  that  old  mills  were  re- 
started in  some  districts  and  everything  possible 
done  to  increase  the  output.  These  old  mills, 
being  in  many  instances  both  inconveniently 
situated  and  badly  equipped,  will  no  doubt  be 
given  up  again  later  on,  but  the  call  on  the  re- 
mainder may  be  expected  to  be  permanent.  One 
thing  is  quite  clear,  and  that  is  that  England  can 
never  revert  again  to  such  a  state  of  military 
unpreparedness  as  existed  before  the  European 
War  broke  out,  and  a  larger  Army  will  of  course 
mean  more  clothing  and  more  work  for  the  woollen 
factories. 

The  worsted  manufacturer  will  no  doubt  be 
little  affected,  for  when  the  world  gets  back  to  the 
normal  again,  the  tailor  and  the  dressmaker  will 
probably  be  as  largely  patronised  as  ever.  Both 
sections  of  the  trade  may  be  expected  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly busy  for  some  years  to  come,  for  while 
the  mills  have  been  kept  fully  engaged  on  Govern- 
ment work  during  the  war,  the  stocks  of  the 


218  WOOL 

draper  and  merchant  have,  perforce,  had  to  run 
down  to  zero. 

There  will  be  good  trade  for  a  long  time  to  come 
if,  as  we  have  already  stated,  the  raw  material  is 
abundant  and  the  price  is  "right/'  It  has  already 
been  pointed  out  that  the  great  wool-producing 
countries  are  at  the  moment  showing  a  tendency 
to  produce  mutton  at  the  expense  of  wool,  and  it 
largely  depends  on  how  far  this  tendency  is  real- 
ised whether  the  woollen  and  worsted  trades  of 
the  future  are  developed  or  retarded. 


INDEX 


AGRICULTURAL  Organisation  So- 
ciety, 95,  97 

Alpaca,  181 

Anthrax  infection,  108 

Apprenticeships,  Flemings  and, 
16 

Arkwright,  Richard,  30 

Australasian  wool  sales,  88,  89 

Australia,  founding  of  wool 
flocks,  74;  Captain  Macar- 
thur's  modest  start,  74;  de- 
velopment of  the  merino,  76; 
cross-breeding,  78;  climatic 
advantages,  78;  sheep  loca- 
tions, 78,  79;  water  difficulties 
overcome,  79;  numbers  and 
value  of  sheep  and  wool,  80- 
84;  shearing,  101-104;  trans- 
portation, 105;  classing,  107; 
manufacturing  possibilities, 
190;  bounties  and  tariffs,  191 

BALING,  109, 110 

Beaming,  122 

Bean,     Captain,     and     British 

Empire  wool,  54 
Big  ranches  versus  small  farms, 

63 
Blanket  and  his  invention,  7, 

167 

Bradford  and  its  trade,  170 
British  classification  at  fault,  94 


British    supremacy    challenged, 

189 
Burying  in  woollen,  4 

CARDING,  117 
Carpet  making,  179 
Carpet  wools,  56,  179 
Cartwright,  Edmund,  30 
Cheviots,  60, 164,  165 
Classing  wool,  106 
Clothing  trade,  157,  158 
Coalfields  and  the  wool  trade,  25 
"Coatings,"  18 
Combing,  30, 116 
Crofters'  industry,  148 
Crompton,  Samuel,  30 
Cross-breeding  for  mutton,  61, 62 

DESIGNING  cloth,  142 
Dewsbury  and  Batley  trade,  152, 

153 

"Doffers,"  12X 

Domestic  weaving  methods,  28 
Down  wools,  60 
Dyeing,  139 

EDWARD  III.  and  wool  industry, 
8 

England's  manufacturing  ad- 
vantages, 194 

English  weol  growers  and  home 
market,  93,  94 


219 


220 


INDEX 


FACTORY  riots,  32 

Fashion's  effects  on  trade,  185 

"Faults"  in  wool,  109 

Felt  hats,  181 

Felting,  Pliny  on,  3 

Finishing  processes,  137 

Flemings  in  the  North  and  West, 

18;    general    settlement,    19; 

and  horticulture,  20 
Flemish  harried  by  free-booters, 

25 

Fuller  on  the  Flemings,  8 
Fulling  mills,  7 
Future  of  wool  trade,  184 

GREASE  in  wool.  113 
Guilds,  7 

HAND-LOOM  weavers,  27, 125 
Hargreaves,  James,  29 
Healding,  122 
Home-spun  goods,  147 
Hosiery  trade,  164,  175 
Huddersfield,  143,  171 
Huguenot  invasion,  13 

IRISH  peasant  industry,  165 
JACQUARD  invention,  127 

KAY,  John,  28 
"Kendal  Green,"  8 
Kentish  "Grey-coats,"  14 
Khaki,  its  origin,  166 

LANCASHIRE  and  Yorkshire  inter- 
dependence, 169 
Lee's  stocking  frame,  175 
Leicester,  177 


Lister's  wool-comber,  31,  32 
London  Wool  Exchange,  85,  86, 

87 

Loom-houses,  27 
Lustre  wools,  60 

MACHINE  making,  143 
Merino,  57,  72,  73.  77 
Mohair,  181 
Mungo,  155 

NETHERLANDERS  and  England, 
13 

New  Zealand's  mutton  breeds,  61 

New  Zealand's  record,  81-84 

Noble  comb,  113 

North  of  England,  climatic  ad- 
vantages of,  23 

Northrop  loom,  130 

Norwich  and  the  Flemings,  17 

Nottingham,  177 

PAPER  packs,  111,  112 
Pulling  wook,  101 

QUEEN  PHILIPPA'S  enterprise,  15 

RAGS  and  waste,  154 
"Renascence  cloth,"  159 
Rhodes,  Cecil,  corner  hi  wool,  70 
Rochdale  flannel,  168 

SABOT  and  clog,  21,  22 
Saleroom  scenes,  87,  88 
Sandwich,  Queen  Elizabeth's 

visit  to,  17 
Scotch  hosiery,  178 
Scotch  tweeds,  61,  164 
Seamless  hose,  176 


INDEX 


221 


Shearing,  hand  and  mechanical, 
101-105 

Sheep,  origin  lost  in  antiquity, 
34;  Biblical  and  pagan  allu- 
sions, 3;  first  known  in  Britain, 
5;  sold  for  a  penny,  7;  its  many 
uses,  35;  feeding  peculiarities, 
35;  its  intelligence,  36;  world- 
wide habitat,  36;  British  Em- 
pire predominance,  37;  Brit- 
ain's original  types,  38,  39 

"Shoddy,"  152 

Shuttle  "picker"  invented,  29 

Sizing,  120 

Sleying,  122 

Somersetshire  cloths,  166 

Spain  and  the  merino,  72 

Spuming,  120 

Spinning  jenny  invented,  29 

"WALK-MILLS,"  18 

War  and  the  wool  trade,  50,  51, 
52,  197,  216 

Warping,  122 

Washing  and  scouring,  113 
114 

Weavers,  the  coming  of,  10;  the 
second  Flemish  invasion,  11; 
relics  of  the  early  settlement, 
14;  Flemish  immigrants  perse- 
cuted, 17,  18 

Weaving,  30,  123,  126 


West  of  England  broadcloths,  163 

Witney  blankets,  163 

Wool,  world's  oldest  industry,  1; 
manufacture  introduced  into 
Britain,  4;  the  romance  of 
steam,  22;  Yorkshire  and  Lan- 
cashire's advantages,  23,  24, 
25;  hair  and  wool,  40,  41;  Pro- 
fessor Barker's  opinion,  41; 
Youatt  and  others  differ,  42; 
fibre  under  the  microscope,  43, 
44;  the  wool  staple,  45;  com- 
parative strengths  of  merino 
and  Lincoln,  45;  Burnley's 
classification,  45;  carding  and 
combing,  47;  felting  and  non- 
felting  qualities,  48;  statistical 
difficulties,  50,  196;  world's 
production,  53;  wool-produc- 
ing countries,  55,  56,  57,  58, 
59;  British  wools,  60,  61;  the 
world's  requirements,  67,  68; 
trade  statistics,  65,  66,  192 

Woollen  flocks,  160 

Woollens  and  worsteds  defined, 
46 

Woolsack  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
5,  15 

Wool-sorting,  106,  107,  108 

YORKSHIRE  farmer-weavers,  26, 

27 


Admirably     clear."  —  New     York 
Sun. 
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Clerk  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
"Can  be  praised  without  reserve. 


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man of  the  British  Labor  Party. 
"The  latest  authoritative  exposi- 
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cisco Argonaut. 

LIBERALISM 

By  PROF.  L.  T.  HOBHOUSE,  au- 
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A  masterly  philosophical  and  his- 
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THE  STOCK  EXCHANGE 
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London  Economist.  Reveals  to 
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THE    EVOLUTION     OF     IN- 

DUSTRY 

By  D.  H.  MACGREGOR,  Professor 
of  Political  Economy,  University 
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cent changes  that  have  given  us 
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working  classes  and  the  princi- 
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ELEMENTS      OF     ENGLISH 

LAW 

By  W.  M.  GELDART,  Vinerian 
Professor  of  English  Law,  Ox- 
ford. A  simple  statement  of  the 
basic  principles  of  the  English 
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THE  SCHOOL:  An  Introduc- 
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Education,  Manchester.  Pre- 
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liant account  of  the  genius  and 
mission  of  the  Irish  people.  "An 
entrancing  work,  and  I  would 
advise  every  one  with  a  drop  of 
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heart  to  read  it."  —  New  York 
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By  CHARLES  MCLEAN  AN- 
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THE        WARS         BETWEEN 
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By  THEODORE  C.   SMITH,   Pro- 
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FROM  JEFFERSON  TO  LIN- 
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GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 
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NAPOLEON 

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ROME 

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THE  PRINCIPLES  OF 
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With   Kountze   Brothers,    Bankers,    New  York 

Lecturer   on   Finance   at  the  New  York  University  School  of 

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By  DAVID  H ANN  AY 

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Transcript. 

ABDUL  HAMID 

By  SIR f  EDWIN  PEARS,  author  of  "Forty  Years  in  Constantino- 
ple, ' '  former  President  of  the  European  Bar  in  Constantinople. 

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By  J.  O.   P.    BLAND 

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